Animals vs. Humans

Animals vs. Humans
“To be able to read and write is to learn to profit by and to take part in the greatest of human achievements-that which makes all other human achievements possible-namely, the pooling of our experience in great cooperative stores of knowledge, available to all (8).”
- First of all, I greatly appreciate Hayakawa for letting me realize this fact. Moving on…When I first read this statement, I went back to the question that Hayakawa presented previously: “What animals should we imitate?” Then I began to think that the reason Hayakawa presented this question is not to extract a reasonable answer from us but to emphasize that ‘survival’ has more connotations than just to live. Since every animal somehow managed to live with its natural instinct for survival, the word ‘survival’ does not mean only living but how a species continue to exist and to advance. Because the humans possess one tool that other animals do not, language, the humans dominate and maintain the order of the ecosystem. Humans could live in a better condition than other animals because they are able to pass down the wisdom using language. This unintentional sharing of knowledge via written or oral records has helped humans to have a greater advantage than other species.
I concluded that humans do not have to mimic other animals’ abilities which have kept them alive. For those animals, their special gifts help them to survive just like how language benefits humans. We just received different gifts from God and luckily we can say that we got a slightly more favorable one.

(Jennifer Park)