Nature of man

All men are created equal. This is taken to be a fundamental tenet of many societies, despite the evidence, being the basis either literally or implicitly for such documents as the American Declaration of Independence and the French Constitution. It could even, at a stretch, be contested that such a thought was part of the motivation for the Magna Carta. Given that, but demonstrated against a backdrop of Olympic standard athletes and the physically incapacitated, the socially inept and the charismatic, Nobel prize scientists and special needs schoolchildren how can 'man be created equal'?

Well, ignoring the whole issue of creation, how can 'man' be considered equal? If physical capabilities range so vastly, then by definition even considering the number of limbs and organs cannot be part of the equation. Similarly, with mental processes that encompass the artistically gifted, the logically adept, the sociopathic and the isolation of the autistic spectrum, it cannot be the way in which we think, save perhaps in the grossest sense that perhaps we all do.

So it would seem that, fundamentally, we are - as Satre would have it - and because we are, we are as one. In that case, are not all dogs created equal, and some of us merely have two legs and read? What is it that man has, that the rest of nature doesn't? Intelligence is present in other creatures, similarly tool-use and puzzle-solving skills.

Chimpanzees have an understanding of language, as has been demonstrated in numerous experiments. Given that, and given that the degree of intelligence cannot be considered requisite part of defining 'man'- for we are all equal - there must be a quality of our thinking that we do not share.

Any intelligence, if faced with a problem, can eventually develop the tools to solve it - even a computer, if programmed to learn. Directions, temperatures, pressures - physical manifestations that can be measured - all are things to which creatures and computers can react. Emotions, to date, appear to have evaded the microprocessor, but there is the chance they can be developed. What man has that the others don't is abstraction.

A computer can learn 'pain' because it is a direct response to a stimulus. Likewise it can learn 'up' as a direction, relative to an arbitrary point. However, it can't define justice. Honour.

How do you measure love? How do you quantify humour? You can't - they can be experienced, but not explained, delightful without being describable. That is what sets man apart - his ability exceeds his understanding. We are uncaused causes, each and every one of us, an effect with no direct cause, whether it be humour, or honour, or justice or anything else. Perhaps we made God in our image, and perhaps it made us in it's own, but either way we are as divine as it, because that random spark that is the 'self' is there in us all.