The Criterion for Being Human

Humans and animals have many things in common, yet there is a series of basic distinctions which distinguish humans from animals. The commonalities between humans and animals and the things that distinguish humans from animals have caused man to live a life with two aspects: an animal life and a human life, or in other words, a material life and a cultural and spiritual life. Humans, also like other animals, has a set of wants and desires and, in the light of his own knowledge and under landings. exerts efforts to satisfy those wants and desires.

He differs from animals in the scope and breadth of his knowledge and understanding, as well as in the sublime level of his wants and desires. This is what has given humans an advantage and excellence, and separates him from animals.

The knowledge that animals have of the world is only obtained through the outward senses; it is for this reason that it is superficial and individual and does not have generality and universality. The knowledge of the animal, in contrast to humans, is regional, meaning it is limited to the animal’s environment and cannot go beyond this. Also, the animal’s knowledge is current, meaning it is confined to the present time and cut off from the past and future; an animal has neither knowledge of its own history nor the history of the world and it does not think about, or exert any efforts based on, the future. The animal, in terms of knowledge, never goes beyond the framework of exteriority, individuality and particularity, its environment and the present time. It is imprisoned with these four limitations and if occasionally it goes outside of them, it is not conscientiously and by choice; rather it is forcibly directed by nature – its actions are instinctive and unconscious.

Not only is the knowledge of the animal limited to this framework, the level of its wants and desires are also limited. Firstly, they are restricted to the material: its wants and desires do not go beyond eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, nesting and making use of its opposite sex. Secondly, they are individual, meaning they are connected to itself, at the most to its mate and offspring. Thirdly, they are regional, meaning they are connected to its environment. Fourthly, they are current and are related to the present time.

However, the realm of the human, whether in its knowledge and insight, or whether in its wants and desires, is much more extensive and sublime than that of the animal. Human knowledge and understanding goes beyond the appearances of things and penetrates into their essence and reality and their relationships with other phenomena. It is a knowledge that is not confined to place or time; it is able to encompass places other than the individual's own environment and reaches to the past and future. It discovers human history as well as the world’s history, meaning the history of the planet, its mountains, seas, plants and other animals and considers the distant future. More than this, human thought heads towards infinity and eternity and can gain some understanding of them. A human goes beyond individuality and particularity and discovers general rules and general facts about the universe, thus enabling him to gain dominance over nature. From the aspect of his wants and desires, a human can be at a high level, he is a being that pursues values, ideals and perfection. The ideals he reaches to are non-material and are of no benefit to him; they are ideals that are not specific to himself or even to his spouse and children, they are general and inclusive of all of humanity and are not confined to a specific place or time. Now the question is, how can a human, and aided by what means, raise his knowledge and desires to this level of excellence? The answer is the “intellect”. In fact, it is because of the intellectual power he possesses that the human is able to understand the nature of things and gain knowledge beyond the limitations of time, space and individuality. The benefit that man gains from the power of the intellect is not found in any other animal or plant and it is with the help of this power that he can understand general facts and rules and become aware of the good and evil of matters. He can, for example, between a choice of something that is good and something that is better, choose that which is better and between a choice of bad and worse, choose that which is bad; in summary, he can conceptualise a noble purpose for his life and move towards it. Of course, there is another means within the human which causes him to have sublime tendencies and desires, and that is called his “nature”.