Clinical Psychologist Supports Human Exceptionalism

A New Unified Theory of Psychology, animals, Aristotle, behavior, Culture & Ethics, Dogs, emotions, evolutionary biologists, Feelings, Gregg Henriques, human exceptionalism, humans, Marc Bekoff, Michael Egnor, moral choice, Neuroscience & Mind, prejudice, psychology, Psychology Today, Racism, reason, secular humanists, sensations, sexism, speciesism, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, Wesley J. Smith
Gregg Henriques, a secular humanist, has developed an approach that accepts human exceptionalism without denying that animals have mental abilities. Source
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Science Writing Tries to Smash Human Exceptionalism

Africa, Amanda Richardson, animal behavior, antiquity, BBC News, Bronze Age, chimpanzees, Claire Asher, Côte D’Ivoire, Culture & Ethics, England, Homo sapiens, human exceptionalism, human mind, humans, Ice Age, Merlin, metal tools, monkeys, Neuroscience & Mind, New Stone Age, paleontology, polar bears, Royal BC Museum, Salisbury, Stone Age, stone tools, vultures, walruses
Stone tool use among animals versus the Stone Age provides a useful illustration of the tendency. Source
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What Does Your Brain Do? And What Can It Not Do?

Aristotle, augustine, blood, brains, carbon dioxide, Denyse O'Leary, emotions, free will, heart, Intellect, kidneys, mathematics, Medicine, memories, Montreal Neurological Institute, muscles, Mystery of the Mind, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, oxygen, pain, philosophy, Plato, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, urine, Wilder Penfield
A surprising result of pioneering neurosurgery was the discovery that some mental processes could be stimulated in the brain but others could not be. Source
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Brain Imaging Shows Intelligence Uses the Whole Brain

brain, brain imaging, cerebellum, coordination, fMRI, Kirsten Hilger, Medicine, Michael Egnor, mind, movement, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, neurosurgeons, PNAS Nexus, strokes, textbooks, The Immortal Mind, thinking, tumors
A focus on specific regions like the prefrontal cortex can mislead. When we are thinking, we use brain-wide connections between many parts of the brain at once. Source
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Who (or What) First Used Tools?

abstract ideas, algae, birds, blanket octopus, chimpanzees, Christophe Boesch, crows, decorator crab, Egyptian vulture, Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, invertebrates, Jane Goodall, Lucy, Max Planck Institute, Neuroscience & Mind, octopus, orange-spotted tuskfish, ostrich eggs, otters, paleontology, Taï National Park, tools, Tracy L. Kivell, Tremoctopus violaceus
It’s not stone tool use that is exclusive to humans; vultures can do that too. It’s the ability to form abstract ideas. Source
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