Nidhi R. answered • 03/22/24
Experienced College Tutor Specializing in SAT Math
In taxonomy (which is the study of classifying things, usually organisms; https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taxonomy), each organism falls under a domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, based on certain shared traits with other members of a given subcategory. For the kingdom Animalia (animals are just organisms from this kingdom), some of those traits include (https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Introductory_Biology_(CK-12)/10%3A_Animals/10.01%3A_Animal_Characteristics):
- Being eukaryotic (animal cells have organelles and are larger/more complex than prokaryotic cells)
- Being heterotrophic (not being able to produce their own food and having to rely on other organisms to get nutrients)
- Having cells without cell walls
Humans possess the traits that define animals, and are thus considered animals from a purely biological perspective.
Of course, in normal conversation people don't usually consider humans animals. The word animals is often used as a synonym for "beast" colloquially, and humans generally consider themselves too intelligent to call themselves that. The species name for humans, incidentally, is homo sapiens-where sapiens translates literally to wise (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-sapiens). On a purely technical level, though, humans are considered animals just as dogs and lions are.
Nidhi R.
Humans are animals, but usually, when someone asks you to name a type of animal, they don't usually want you to answer with "humans." It's kind of like if someone asked you to give them a number and you said "6.022." Yes, it is a correct answer, but it's probably not the first answer that comes to mind and it's probably not what they are looking for. But 6.022 is definitely a number still.03/22/24
Hailey P.
So, are humans animals and are animals human? Thank you for your response and time! Or are humans simply a type of animal or species and then there are other species and that’s how humans are different from animals and so they aren’t animals either bc they’re not the exact same species?03/23/24
Nidhi R.
Any time! Let's try using your soda analogy. Animals in general are like soda, but just as there are many brands of soda, there are many species of animals. Humans would be like Sprite in this analogy. Sprite is a type of soda, but there are also other types like Pepsi, Fanta, Dr. Pepper, etc. Similarly, humans are one species of animal, but there are other species as well like dogs, rabbits, lions, etc. Sprite isn't the same thing as soda in general because not all soda is Sprite (Pepsi and Fanta aren't Sprite, for example). Sprite is a subcategory of soda though. Humans aren't the same thing as animals in general because not all species of animal are human (like dogs and rabbits), but humans are still a subcategory of animals.03/23/24
Hailey P.
So you’re saying humans aren’t the exact same thing as animals, but are a subcategory of animals? And that animals are not human, right?03/27/24
Hailey P.
So humans are classified as animals; but by a different definition than colloquial conversations right? Its not literally saying humans are animals like dogs and cats right? Just based off of certain characteristics, they are animals. But animals aren’t humans right?? Like soda, there is different types of soda, but they are all soda?? Is it saying humans and non human animals are the same?03/22/24