Repository | Book | Chapter
Being aware of rational animals
pp. 319-331
Abstract
Modern science has qualified human beings as homo sapiens. Is there a serious scientific theory backing this nomenclature? And can we proclaim ourselves as wise (sapiens)? The classical rational animals characterization has apparently the same syntactic form (a qualificative applied to a substantive) but it is not working exactly in the same way. Moreover the semantics behind is more appropriate, encompassing a pivotal ambiguity. In the second part of the paper, we further delve into this ambiguity, relating rationality with three fundamental features of these creatures: ability to laugh, sexuality and transformation.
Publication details
Published in:
Dodig Crnkovic Gordana, Giovagnoli Raffaela (2017) Representation and reality in humans, other living organisms and intelligent machines. Dordrecht, Springer.
Pages: 319-331
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-43784-2_16
Full citation:
Béziau Jean-Yves (2017) „Being aware of rational animals“, In: G. Dodig Crnkovic & R. Giovagnoli (eds.), Representation and reality in humans, other living organisms and intelligent machines, Dordrecht, Springer, 319–331.