We’ve often heard that humans are rational animals, but is that really true?Studies on a person’s daily thinking and behavior show us that this statement may be incorrect, especially if we consider it absolute. In many situations, human intellect is used as a differentiating factor for animals. Even the term rational animal is used with a connotation. superiority.
We will divide the reflection in question to better understand it, in the first we will try to clarify what it means to be an animal and in the second we will talk about the rationality of people and how they use that reflection. Capacity.
- According to biological studies.
- Humans are classified as living in the animal kingdom.
- This is because it combines the characteristics and functions of an animal.
- On the other hand.
- Many people can say that we are endowed with intelligence and reason.
- And we can use this particularity to distinguish ourselves from other animals.
However, intelligence remains an adaptation to the medium, necessary for the survival of the species, just as a cat or dog survives having claws and teeth, humans have intelligence as another resource to survive, in fact, if humans did not have this flexibility. and cognitive ability may have disappeared (we are not the most agile, the fastest, the largest or the strongest).
There are also experts who say that we are the most suitable species, in fact, when it comes to adaptation and natural selection, the terms basically do not make much sense, an adapted species is a species that exists without danger of extinction. Therefore, all or most species that are not extinct at this time are suitable.
The truth is that our plasticity allows us to inhabit very different regions of the Earth, regions with very different conditions from each other, but we are not the only ones who do, many bacteria spread better than us. In this sense, we are more of an animal, with our particular characteristics, neither better nor worse than other species of living beings.
Another aspect to be addressed, in relation to the topic that gives title to this article, is another question What does rational mean in the concept?Rational animal? Informally, we understand rationality as the ability to objectively assess problems or events and respond logically to them; it can also be understood as emotional or instinctive opposition.
Dissociation emotionally and rationally doesn’t make sense. This is true because our behavior is always influenced by the conduct of both parties, making it impossible in many situations to separate one influence from the other. Yes, it is true that in some situations there is more involvement of the emotional aspects and in other rational aspects; However, however, we cannot see these aspects as two independent ways of doing things, both continually influencing.
But let’s leave the emotion behind. Let’s talk about the extent to which our neocortex is “rational. ” On the basis of the psychology of thought, a comparison was made of human logic with Aristotelian logic, which represents the purest and most mathematical reasoning possible. Scientists quickly realized that the two ways of thinking did not match.
However, if human beings do not use logic to think, what is their way of reasoning like?If we want to find an answer, believe that humans have limited cognitive resources, and in many situations, we must act quickly. If we could “purely logical,” “we would spend a lot of resources making every decision and being able to give complex answers. However, that’s not the case, is it?”
Therefore, people reason with mental shortcuts, known in psychology as heuristics, which are reasoning based on probability and experience, direct or indirect, in terms of adaptation it is more cost-effective to make probable reasoning, assuming a controlled risk that is not correct, than eliminating that risk and making an eternity to make decisions.
After reviewing the data on human thought and behavior, we can make several reflections. The statement: is human beings a rational animal?You have to understand it very carefully and remotely. Rational or not, in principle we cannot say that this makes us better or worse positioned compared to other living beings when we talk about adaptation, on the other hand, studies tell us that we are never strictly rational. decisions, we are not like this and act on what dictates intuition or heart (our most instinctive and primitive part).
One term for us, coined by social psychology, is “no cognitive resources. “This name has a reason: our brains are programmed to save as much as possible the resources we have. Depending on the size of the event or problem, it will make it more or less elaborate reasoning, but always trying to save effort.