Re:Nalanda: The university that changed the world
by Towaway69 on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @01:00AM
(#35052094)
Point taken :)
What if "human" would be replaced by "ape"?
Re:Nalanda: The university that changed the world
by lovemenot on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @07:34AM
(#35054605)
Sure. There are several similar arguments made in this thread. Such as, before the word "run" was first used, we could only walk quickly.
The logic of these arguments is fine. I just noticed a way to nit-pick your implementation of it.
Re:Nalanda: The university that changed the world
by thaumasiotes on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @01:22AM
(#35052219)
> If we define humans as having a sufficiently sophisticated language
That would be hard to object to.
> and using a term to reference one's entire species is characteristic of that
But this is easy to object to. People can easily do without a term for the species; it's more common to use tribal names, so that a contrast is drawn between different groups of humans (as opposed to between humans and animals, or humans and gods).
Terms for humans as a species come along pretty quickly, but they're not universal.
If we define humans as having a sufficiently sophisticated language, and using a term to reference one's entire species is characteristic of that, then at a stretch we could define the first human being as the child of proto-humans who first invented this linguistic concept.