Who do we think we are? - part 2 of 5
Self-awareness
Transcript
What makes us human? Some say it’s: SELF-AWARENESS
Definition: to have an image of oneself as a thinking, acting and feeling individual.
What does that mean? I think it’s like having a mental picture of yourself as seen from the outside - like in a movie! Sometimes that’s how I move through life - I can even hear the voice-over: “There goes the heroine of our tale, Maggie the Promising Comic Artist, boldly making her way down to Main Street…”
Yiri: “So that’s self-awareness? I thought it was just one of your weird tics!”
Me: “Okay, maybe not everyone feels like they’re in a movie - but surely everybody has an image of who they are, what they look like, how they come across… what the results of their behavior are…”
Don’t ANIMALS have such an image of themselves? How can we ever know if they do? We assume animals have no significantly developed awareness of self because they don’t recognize themselves in a mirror.
(A cat sees itself in a mirror and goes: “Aaaaargh! Another cat!”)
Yiri: “That theory is so totally outdated! It turns out that lots of animals make a connection when they are confronted with their mirror-image!”
(A monkey sees itself in a mirror and goes: “Aaaaaargh! Bad Hair Day!”)
Monkeys, crows, dolphins, elephants - we discover more and more animals that definitely seem to have a conscious awareness of self!
Then what makes this different in humans? Why do we consider human self-awareness superior to that of animals? I think it’s because we consider self-awareness mainly as the ability to REFLECT on our selves and our actions.
(Person looking in a mirror: “This is me! But why am I this way? And why do I act the way I do?”)
Me: “I don’t see animals doing that!”
Yiri: “I don’t see a lot of people doing that either! And how would you measure such… self-reflection?”
(Lion on his back, full belly, thinks: “Oooh, I shouldn’t have eaten that third gazelle!”)
(Elephant looking up into a starry night sky, thinks: “I’m just a tiny speck in an endless universe!”)
(Dolphin splashing in the ocean, thinks: “Hmm, that last backflip was crap!”)
Me: “I think we can only measure that by the degree to which reflection appears to enable beings to change their behaviors!”
Yiri (looking skeptical): “In that case, I doubt we can consider it a general human characteristic…”
Original pages
Well, I would say that we are human because God created us that way, and to have dominion over the animals, but then again, your cartoon is just fabulous and I love how it all comes together. You've got talent Margreet!
Ain’t that the truth!