On even the slightest pretexts, science reporting seeks to undermine the exceptional place of human beings in nature.

Case in point? A study in the journal Nature Communications, “The evolution of human and ape hand proportions,” concludes that human hands are less sophisticated than those of chimps. Never mind how much more we have accomplished with ours. Now watch how this is spun as an attack on human exceptionalism. For example, here is the story as reported by Discovery News:

Given our inherent human-centric viewpoint, we tend to think that our species is more advanced in all respects than other animals, but new research finds that human hands are more primitive than those of our closest primate ancestors: chimpanzees…

Our hands, however useful, may instead represent a very primitive anatomical structure that’s been around for millions of years.

Please. Many animals have biological capacities that are far more advanced than their counterpart in humans. Hawks possess superior eyesight. Gorillas greater strength. Wolves, a far more acute sense of smell. Bats fly.

These attributes are not what make human beings exceptional, though, since they are morally irrelevant. So too the length of time since a particular attribute may have emerged in life’s history. Also, notice how the writer uses the term “other animals,” an attempt to reduce us in stature to the level of all other fauna.

Yes, humans are animals in a biological sense. But the term also has a moral aspect, and that is the way in which I believe it was subtly wielded by the Discovery writer: We are just another animal in the forest, and with a more primitive hand, at that!

Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism.
Image credit: G.dallorto (Self-published work by G.dallorto) [Attribution], via Wikimedia Commons.