Why were humans the only species that evolved the ability

Well, we don't know about mental capabilities of Neanderthals. The fact that they buried their dead with tools and stuff suggests at least some kind of high cognitive ability.

>>3164434
something had to i think.

>>3164448
What do you mean?

It's a sliding scale, we just have the most capacity for thought. Animals possess a variety of thought capacity, dogs have some abstract thought.

>>3164434
because op obviously spent time discussing with the manta ray and the hawk their positions on abstraction. Let me guess, you actually believe what they teach you in school are absolute facts

>>3164434
Apes may have abstract thought, tree centred rituals may show at some primitive sense of religion.

>>3164451
i mean there is an ecological niche for an intelligent species and it was going to happen eventually. given what we know of neanderthals and what we see in apes i think its pretty clear there is a pressure for intelligence to evolve

the unique circumstances surrounding our evolution produced it randomly.

>>3164471
>produced it randomly
No.

The brain in humans is powerful enough to supply the soul with introspective awareness.

>>3164457
we know some animals can count
we don't know if any of them can count something that's not right in front of them

>>3164471
That's not how evolution works, brainlet.

>>3164478
>souls
ebin

>>3164434
Explain elephant death rituals

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>>3164742
Explain doggo death rituals

Protip: you literally can't.

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>>3164443
>>3164453
>>3164457
>>3164460
>>3164488
>>3164742
>>3164752
>HURR ANIMALS ARE SMART TOO THOUGH
This contrarian bullshit is so obnoxious. There's obviously something differentiating what humans do vs. what non-humans do on this planet, unless chimpanzees have their own space programs and international computer networks. Yes, we know, you read about dolphins passing the mirror test. Congratulations.

>>3164792
intelligence isnt a switch, its a spectrum. just because chimps arent propelling themselves into space doesnt mean they arent intelligent. look at you, youre on a message board and youre retarded

>>3164797
>isn't a switch, its a spectrum
Yeah, I know the famous Darwin quote.
How many chimp populations have been identified with languages of generative grammar? How many human populations have been identified without languages of generative grammar? This isn't an inherently biological feature of the human species since you can teach an English child Spanish or a Spanish child English. There are real tipping points before which you don't get a certain kind of behavior and after which you do, that's one of them. A spectrum model alone doesn't account for those tipping points. It's retarded to pretend like animals are just stupid humans or humans are just smart animals. There are real things to be learned about the completely different sorts of things humans do that you'll never find out about if you cling to dogma that it's just the same thing chimps do but more of it.

>>3164792
The question wasn't about animals being as smart as humans or chimpanzee space programs, it was about humans supposedly being the only species capable of abstract thought, when there is argument that this isn't the case. Fuck off you mouth-breathing aspie frog poster

>>3164845
Abstract thought doesn't have one magical absolute definition you autist. Instead of jerking yourself off to counterexamples that prove the OP's premise wrong you could try meeting him in the middle and answering his question to the extent that a certain kind of abstract thought is there in humans and not in other animals.

>>3164870
He never fucking said why didn't animals meet the same extent of abstract thought humans are capable of, he asked why animals aren't capable of it at all, which is clearly wrong if examples of abstract thought in nature by other animals is shown, learn to fucking read.

>>3164884
>He never fucking said why didn't animals meet the same extent of abstract thought humans are capable of
A) It depends on how you define "abstract thought" and B) What are you really accomplishing by choosing to define it in a way where OP's premise is wrong? You get to post a counterexample and feel smug about pointing out his "error." Maybe it would be more productive to find the extent to which the OP's question points to a legitimate topic that can be discussed and then discuss it.

>>3164434
Its only if you consider humans are single species. This idea was forced because of Hitler and obvious BS - white and brown bears much more differ than Whites and Blacks.
Humans became only civilization because of massive destroying of all other animals of same size. Little animals havent enough brain.

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>>3164752
Wake up doggo

>>3164752
Hunger.

>>3164923
Maybe OP should just have specified what he meant when saying abstract thought instead?

>>3164434
Because once one species develops intelligence, they inevitably wipe out every other species that's close to reaching that evolutionary point.

My grandfather told me a story about how he sold a donkey to a friend when he left for America. Said when he came back two years later on a visit the donkey 100% recognized him by wagging his tail and nuzzling him.

Spoopy.

>>3164792
>asks question
>gets answers showing false premise
>gets mad and shifts goal posts

Abstract thought can be found in many different species. Get over it.

>>3165058
>goal posts
Maybe you can try having a discussion instead of treating every question asked here as a competitive semantics debate. You fucking know what he was getting at, it's retarded to pretend there's nothing meaningful there to try to explore. Here's an example of a response that does exactly that:
>>3165013
>Because once one species develops intelligence, they inevitably wipe out every other species that's close to reaching that evolutionary point.
Is it right? Maybe not, but it's at least an attempt to try to explain the thing you know is there that the OP's trying to ask about.

>>3164434
yes humans from homo erectus-homo sapiens had abstract thought.

>>3165094
How would we know what's OP is talking about? Some people think animals lack any abstract way of thinking.

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Is the consequence of having the ability to generate abstract thought mental illness?

Is that why you don't see any schizophrenic puppers?

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>>3165125
>implying

>>3165104
You don't know what anyone's talking about for sure. You have to make some decisions about how you want to try to interpret their statements and how you want to respond to them.
>Some people think animals lack any abstract way of thinking.
Even if he believed non-human animals only behaved purely in terms of non-thinking instinct that doesn't mean you need to respond with "but animal X is smart' instead of trying to come up with an explanation for why something comparable to human thought isn't seen anywhere else among non-human animals. The former choice is a conversational dead end. It's not an all or nothing thing, there's an extent to which what the OP is asking about can be mapped to an actual thing you can discuss, and you're choosing to ignore the something that's there over a semantic debate.

I love when /his/shitters try to explain scientific phenomena. You always act like the know-it-alls but you have no clue of the absurdities you are proposing.

>>3164453
>It's a sliding scale, we just have the most capacity for thought.
Honestly the more I think about it the less it seems like a scale at all. I mean, which is smarter: a crow or a dolphin? If intelligence is a straight scale, why is it so hard to rank animals?

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>>3164434
>Alas, what is this shape akin to the fatty mammals I am so fond of eating?
>Perhaps a closer inspections would be of value to ascertaining it's identity
>This odd object, this creature confuses the sense so, perhaps a bite shall sate my curiosity
>Behold! This creature's taste is absolutely unsavory, it's contents of fat are minimal! It is surrounded by a substances the likes of which I have yet to lack the fortune of tasting
>This is in fact not the fleshy mammal I have made dinners of many a day in my life, but a new variety
>With my curiosity sated I shall be off to search for a more savory meal

>>3164434
Depends on what you mean by "abstract" and "humans".

First we don't know that other animals don't have abstract thoughts. Dolphins/dogs/cats/etc can very well have abstract thoughts.

In terms of "humans", the ability to imagine abstractly probably probably mid way into the homo genus.

>>3164434

ABSTRACT THOUGHT IS A TRAIT OF CONSCIOUSNESS; CONSCIOUSNESS AROSE IN THE HUMAN MIND DUE TO THE SPIRIT OF SOFIA (ZOE) INFUSING SOME OF THEM.

>>3168207

*SOME HUMANS.

>>3167290
Lol thats the most articulate shark ive ever read.

>For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons

>>3164434
>were humans the only species that evolved the ability for abstract thought
How do you know it?

>>3165125
You're just conscious of it and it manifests in different ways. I'm 90% sure my pet is mentally ill.

tool use and teamwork

>>3167290
10/10

>>3169752
Animals are much more vulnerable to classical conditioning than humans. To a degree that simple actions can trick them that wouldn't trick a human, who has the capacity to interpret the situation in a more complex manner.

>>3164434

>3 billion years ago
>hurr why is this algae the only species that evolved chloroplasts

>>3169768
in christian?

It's because Adam fucked with Eva and God had to send their spirits on Earth and they chose to inhabit a monkey. From that point they started to evolve into what we are today