Anthromorphic Problems

The more we learn about nonhuman intelligence, however, the more we find that abilities previously thought to be uniquely human are not. Many of the abilities listed earlier have been found to varying degrees in the great apes. For example, it was thought until the 1960s that humans alone make tools. But then Jane Goodall (1963) found wild chimpanzees making them. Later, several other species were found making tools too (Beck, 1980). Thus, ideas about what marks the boundary between human and nonhuman intelligence have undergone repeated revision. Although a large gulf separates human abilities from those of other species, it is not as easy as we hoped to pinpoint in a word or two what distinguishes humans. That does not mean that a more complex explanation is not forthcoming. For example, it may be that it is not creativity per se that distinguishes human intelligence, but the proclivity to take existing ideas and adapt them to new contexts or to one’s own unique circumstances — that is, to put one’s own spin on them, such that they become increasingly complex. The question of what separates human intelligence from that of other species is a recurring theme that will be fleshed out in the pages that follow.

(2011–05–01). The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology) (p. 330). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.