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comment by theadvancedapes
theadvancedapes  ·  3555 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Just who will be we, in 2493?

    The comparison doesn't make perfect sense, but neither does any definition of human, or a rationale for putting non-humans on similar footing.

IMO, I think it is precisely this that makes us human, this flexible/dynamic symbolism that allows us to have this conversation - to construct conceptual frameworks that can be debated and critiqued over time. Chimpanzees will only ever have a solidarity of mind with their kind, but humans can symbolise totally new solidarities, i.e. all apes deserve fundamental rights, all mammals, all organisms, etc. That is totally an evolving open-ended symbolic process, i.e. what is "similarity of mind" can always be re-articulated, depending on where we are intersubjectively as a species.