Question: What makes us human?

Oli Wilson answered on 8 Nov 2017:

That’s a potentially very deep question, and there’s no simple answer! When scientists find a new species they have to write a description of it so others know what it’s like. For humans (Homo sapiens) this was written by the legendary biologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. His description didn’t get it all right (he thought humans from different parts of the world were different species – they’re not), but it does give quite a deep answer to this question: his description read ‘HOMO nosce te ipsum’. That’s Latin, and literally translated it means ‘man, know yourself.’ So what makes us human? Look at yourself: everything that makes you who you are – all your complicated biology, wonders and flaws, personality, relationships, beliefs and the rest – is what makes us human. I think that’s pretty awesome 🙂
If you fancy seeing Linnaeus’s description for yourself, you can look at a scan of an original 260-year-old copy here: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/726909#page/26/mode/1up