Are you a lumper or a splitter?

[Brian37]

In every classification scheme, there are two camps. There are those classifiers who tend to find similarities between things and prefer to lump smaller groups into larger groups, and on the other hand those catalogers who tend to find differences and prefer to split larger groups into smaller groups. In thinking about human nature, too, there are lumpers and splitters.  Splitters like to emphasize the ways in which we are distinct from the other animals, such as our rationality, language, opposable thumbs, bipedalism, civilization, and so on.  Lumpers on the other hand believe that the most significant influence on the way we are is those ways in which we share traits with other animals.  This includes things like our social nature, the importance of sex and reproduction, our emotions, and so on.

Which do you think is more important for shaping what we are as humans today?  Are you a lumper or a splitter?

All different species are unique. I wouldn't confuse "unique" with "special". No life is "special" in the context of 13.8 billion years. But every different species is unique in it's adaptations.

We are not an apex merely a species with different adaptations. We also have a downside in that although we have deeper thinking skills and more complex language we are also fail to consider we are an invasive species in regards to our global ecosystem.

We cannot for example, do what South Pole penguins can do, and survive without clothing or shelter. We have not survived 5 mass extinctions like the water bear.

I think what is most important is for my fellow humans to stop thinking we are a separate species based on political economic or religious labels. I blame world leaders, not the no name person, for that.