# Human Animality **Domain:** Anthropogeny / Primate Behavior / Human Futures **Doc Type:** Concept Router **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **Human animality** describes the biological and behavioral continuity of Homo sapiens with other animals, especially other primates, alongside the capacities that differ in degree or organization. It is not a judgment that every person is violent or deceitful, nor a claim that biology determines a single inevitable civilizational outcome. ## The Range of the Animal [[wiki/Jane Goodall|Jane Goodall]] distinguishes deliberate, knowingly harmful action from severe chimpanzee aggression while also documenting chimpanzee care and altruism. [[wiki/Richard Wrangham|Richard Wrangham]] places extraordinary cooperation and destruction in the same account of the species; his [[wiki/Reactive vs. Proactive Aggression|reactive/proactive distinction]] matters because reducing impulsive conflict and preventing planned coalitionary violence are different problems. [[wiki/Robert Trivers|Robert Trivers]] proposes an evolutionary function for some forms of [[wiki/Self-Deception|self-deception]], linking an internal cognitive process to social interactions. These are research programs and interpretations with distinct evidence bases, not interchangeable proofs of an essence called “evil.” For this corpus, the point of departure is practical: powerful tools inherit human motives, institutional incentives, and cognitive limits unless those are deliberately examined. The observation connects to [[wiki/Human-Machine Symbiosis|human–machine symbiosis]] and [[wiki/Machine Succession|machine succession]], but no quoted scientist here is being enlisted as an advocate of a particular successor program. [[articles/Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History|Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History]] develops a constructive account of self-knowledge and technological transformation; [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] provides the historical evolutionary route. ## Relationships - **Human/primate comparison:** [[wiki/Jane Goodall|Jane Goodall]] discusses both shared aggression and the proposed role of deliberation in “true evil”; [[wiki/Richard Wrangham|Richard Wrangham]] describes cooperation and destructive capacity together. - **Behavioral mechanisms:** [[wiki/Reactive vs. Proactive Aggression|Reactive vs. Proactive Aggression]] and [[wiki/Coalitionary Aggression|Coalitionary Aggression]] distinguish planned group violence from spontaneous provocation without reducing either to all human behavior. - **Cognitive mechanism:** [[wiki/Robert Trivers|Robert Trivers]] proposes a connection between [[wiki/Self-Deception|Self-Deception]] and interpersonal deceit; this is a hypothesis about some mechanisms, not a universal diagnosis. - **Moral flexibility:** [[wiki/Allen Buchanan|Allen Buchanan]] argues that evolved groupishness can be restrained through social environments; [[wiki/Frans de Waal|Frans de Waal]] describes both primate roots of empathy and the historical in-group function of morality. Neither treats exclusion as an obligation. - **Human-futures route:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] and [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] place inherited capacities and limitations alongside technological transformations without asserting a predetermined future. - **Article routes:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] and [[articles/Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History|Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History]] offer historical and constructive rather than merely dystopic readings. - **Zoological perspective:** [[reminders/Human Animality/The Human Species Is Animal Not Angel by Desmond Morris|Desmond Morris's animal-view reminder]] draws from his [Open University interview](https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/the-environment/creative-climate/earth-vision/desmond-morris-earth-vision); he characterizes inherited tendencies as flexible suggestions and discusses cooperation as well as competition. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “I’ve personally decided that only humans are capable of true evil, because we can deliberate and do it knowing the harm we’re inflicting.” > **— Jane Goodall**, *“Can Animals Be Evil?”, Why Are We Here? interview* [[reminders/Human Animality/Only Humans Can Plan Evil Knowing the Harm by Jane Goodall|Only Humans Can Plan Evil Knowing the Harm by Jane Goodall]] > “We're amazingly more cooperative than almost any other species and we're extraordinarily destructive compared to most species.” > **— Richard Wrangham**, *Big Think interview* [[reminders/Human Animality/Humans Are Both Cooperative and Destructive by Richard Wrangham|Humans Are Both Cooperative and Destructive by Richard Wrangham]] > “I believe that self-deception evolves in the service of deceit.” > **— Robert Trivers**, *“Deceit and Self-Deception,” Edge conversation, May 30, 2006* [[reminders/Deception/Self-Deception Helps Us Deceive Others by Robert Trivers|Self-Deception Helps Us Deceive Others by Robert Trivers]] > “Groupishness is in our genes. We will always tend to divide the world into Us and Them and tend to think We are superior. But if we construct the right social environment, we can avoid tribalism in its more extreme, harmful forms.” > **— Allen Buchanan**, *MIT Press Reader interview, 2021* [[reminders/Human Animality/Our Social Environment Can Restrain Tribalism by Allen Buchanan|Our Social Environment Can Restrain Tribalism by Allen Buchanan]] > “I think that human morality evolved as an ingroup phenomenon, to strengthen the in-group and increase its cohesiveness. This was partly needed for competition with other groups.” > **— Frans de Waal**, *The Believer interview, 2007* [[reminders/Human Animality/Morality Began Within the Group by Frans de Waal|Morality Began Within the Group by Frans de Waal]] The following external-source placement adds Morris's direct zoological view of the species to this synthesis page; it is distinct from the five existing aggression, cooperation, deception, and morality comparisons. > “The human species, we are animals, we’re not angels, and our behaviour has about it a number of qualities which are inborn.” > **— Desmond Morris**, *Open University Earth in Vision interview* [[reminders/Human Animality/The Human Species Is Animal Not Angel by Desmond Morris|The Human Species Is Animal Not Angel by Desmond Morris]] > “Now, as a species, we obviously have problems with violence. We use shower heads to deliver poison gas, letters with anthrax, airplanes as weapons, mass rape as a military strategy. We’re a miserably violent species.” > **— Robert Sapolsky**, *TED2017, “The Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves,” April 2017* [[reminders/Human Animality/A Miserably Violent Species by Robert Sapolsky|A Miserably Violent Species by Robert Sapolsky]] > “The human being hasn’t really had time to evolve into a new species since those tribal days, and so we still have to look at ourselves as tribal animals living in super-tribes, and that means that we’re not really adapted to contemplating super-tribal issues.” > **— Desmond Morris**, *Open University, “Earth in Vision,” updated May 4, 2016* [[reminders/Human Animality/Tribal Animals Live in Super-Tribes by Desmond Morris|Tribal Animals Live in Super-Tribes by Desmond Morris]] > “Ever since the phrase "the age of anxiety" entered the lexicon, each generation has claimed they have more to worry about than the previous one. But the fact is, anxiety is part of the human condition. It's the price we pay for having brain that makes predictions about things that haven't happened, the ability to see a future that is not necessarily foretold by the past.” > **— Joseph LeDoux**, *“Putting Our Anxieties To Work,” Edge Annual Question, 2013* [[reminders/Human Animality/Anxiety Comes With the Ability to Imagine the Future by Joseph LeDoux|Anxiety Comes With the Ability to Imagine the Future by Joseph LeDoux]] ## Sources / Provenance - [Jane Goodall, “Can Animals Be Evil?”, *Why Are We Here?* interview and transcript](https://www.whyarewehere.tv/people/jane-goodall/) — the interview retains both care and violence in its chimpanzee comparison. - [Richard Wrangham, *Big Think* interview and transcript](https://bigthink.com/videos/big-think-interview-with-richard-wrangham/) — the full cooperation/destruction statement and later qualification. - [Robert Trivers, “Deceit and Self-Deception,” Edge conversation (2006)](https://www.edge.org/conversation/robert_trivers-deceit-and-self-deception) — first-person evolutionary hypothesis about deceit. - [Allen Buchanan, MIT Press Reader interview (2021)](https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/our-moral-fate-allen-buchanan-on-escaping-tribalism/) — social environments and the possibility of inclusive morality. - [Frans de Waal, The Believer interview (2007)](https://www.thebeliever.net/an-interview-with-frans-de-waal/) — in-group history and the explicit boundary between description and moral guidance. - [Desmond Morris, “Earth in Vision,” Open University interview](https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/the-environment/creative-climate/earth-vision/desmond-morris-earth-vision) — full transcript of his zoological account of human behavior and its flexible inherited tendencies.