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Humans: a special species?

Of beasts and men

Animal sentience is likely to be legally recognised in the UK. But, asks Julian Baggini, does that mean we should now stop killing other creatures?

Our human difference gives us reasons not to kill each other that go beyond simplistic injunctions to never kill or never shorten life at all. Unlike other animals, we do not live just in the present. Our memories, plans and projects matter to us in ways that are inconceivable for any other creature.

The curious mind of a dog

We “talk” with our pets all the time. But as Cal Flyn discovers, techniques are being developed that allow dogs to seemingly understand vocabulary and grammar.

We may never know if the dogs are using and comprehending human language to mean exactly the same as we do. But if nothing else, it gives us a great deal of insight into our relationship with them as a species, their concerns and their personalities.

How to build an animal

DNA provides the blueprint for our bodies, but something else determines how we are actually constructed. Peter Forbes on the molecules that make us who we are.

Given that we always start from a single living cell, let’s pose what seems a manageable question: how do animals acquire four limbs and their attached appendages?

Q&A

JP O'Malley speaks with Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, The Lesser Bohemians and more.

Men’s bodies [in our culture] are not seen as meat, but flesh, almost divine, separate and set apart. But women’s bodies go through many more changes throughout their lives. This has then been used as a way to condemn women to the place of the animal.

The winter 2021 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! Subscribe here for as little as £10 a year.

Also in this issue:

• Raymond Tallis on endemic lying within the UK government
• Modi is using the media to silence India's minorities, Salim Yusufji writes
• Peter Salmon on Wittgenstein's landmark Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
• Miranda Forsyth on efforts to stem the violence resulting from witchcraft allegations
• Samira Ahmed examines Mary Whitehouse's anti-humanist campaign
• Peter Forbes on the molecules that give animals their key features
• Podcasts are being adapted for television. Do they work, asks Caroline Crampton?
• Ansgar Allen on the novelist Thomas Bernhard's life-long disdain for intellectualism
• Does a film treatment of Elena Ferrante's third novel do it justice, asks Lucy Popescu?
• Anmol Irfan on the Pakistani artists challenging taboos around the human body
• PLUS: Columns from Michael Rosen, Laurie Taylor and Marcus Chown, book reviews, the latest developments in biology, chemistry and physics; cryptic crossword and Chris Maslanka's quiz

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