Is the human species exceptional? It depends…

Human beings belong to the species Homo sapiens, subspecies sapiens (to distinguish us from the now exciting Homo sapiens, subspecies neanderthalensis). In other words, we are the only hominids left on the planet, and we are twice wise. It says so right in the name. We have also been obsessed for a long time with the notion of our own exceptionalism: we — in our esteemed opinion — are different, and superior, to any other life form on Earth.

I actually agree, though in a somewhat different sense from standard accounts of human exceptionalism. This is important not just in terms of our understanding of how things actually are (you know, truth and all that jazz), but particularly in terms of what consequences stems from accepting or rejecting the notion that the human species is unique.

First, then, let me explain in what sense we are not exceptional. I certainly don’t think we are God’s favorite children, specially created by Him. That’s because I don’t believe there is any god, nor that we were created. But I also doubt that there are some characteristics of our biology that qualitatively separates us from all other products of evolution — as many have suggested from Ancient Greece through the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and beyond.

People have tried for a long time to find such characteristics, and the…