There are certain universals seemingly shared across the board by the great majority of individuals. Some of these universals are mysterious; some not so mysterious. Here are a few more of them.
Humour: Humans alone and collectively within the animal kingdom have a sense of humour. We tell and play practical jokes; comedy shows on TV abound as well as feature length comedy films. It's a rare work of literature that doesn't contain at least a few lighter moments; ditto most other works of drama. However, the question is why? Humour has no survival value in any Darwinian sense. I mean do your odds of surviving a shark attack just happen to lie in your telling the shark a few dirty jokes thus distracting it while rapidly back-pedalling out of the water? In any event, the transmission of humour usually resides in language, and humans were on the road to civilization way before we had language. So humour and survival do not seem to be linked. So, how do we explain this human trait? It's universal; it's yet another example of something's screwy somewhere.
Isms: We all feel more comfortable with our own kind. We tend to associate with others our own age, our own race, our own sex, our own religion, our own nationality, etc. Those who differ significantly from the standard €me' get isms attached. Racism; sexism; nationalism, etc. are cases in point. It's all discrimination on the grounds that someone else isn't virtually your clone physically and/or in terms of worldviews (belief systems).
Music: Music is an art form designed for the ears. There probably hasn't, isn't or will be anyone of any race, creed or culture, male or female, old or young, who hasn't, doesn't and won't respond positively to music of one type of another. Exactly why however is a bit mysterious. Music, apart from bird calls and other animal €noises' wasn't part of our natural primate ancestral background. You could hardly call crashing surf, thunder and howling winds musical. And while bird vocalizations and animal sounds have survival value - species recognition or identification, warning/danger cries, use in mating rituals - €humans' even multi-tens of thousands of years ago didn't need to sing or strike rocks or blow across reeds to communicate. Though the saying €music sooths the savage beast€ must have some significance, music appreciation seems to me to be more by design than by natural evolution. However, if we appreciate music by design, who was the designer and then what was the possible purpose behind that appreciation? If all music vanished from human society overnight, our life and civilization would still go on. Music is peripheral to our survival - then or now.
My (fill in the blank) Right or Wrong: The blank could represent spouse, child, family, town, county, state, country or even planet if faced with an alien presence or threat. That applies equally to other belief systems like religion or sports team. The logic of course is faulty in the extreme, but that is beside the point when you're engaging in your debate.
Mythical Creatures: There is no human culture on Earth that hasn't stocked a make-believe zoo with all manner of fantastic creatures. From dragons to thunderbirds, griffins to the hydra, Grendel and Pegasus, unicorns to hellhounds, they're all there and a whole lot more besides. Modern equivalents like Godzilla are clearly marketed as entertainment and fictional; not so marketed were the ancient beasts of €mythology' according to our ancient ancestors. Why did they have a need to €invent' so many weird beasties? Why did they believe these creatures existed? Perhaps the alternative explanation is that these mythical creatures weren't quite so mythical.
Rank Has Its Privileges: Are all men (and women) created equal? Not on your Nellie! In very society, past and present, and no doubt future, there, have been, are and will be the haves and have nots. That's nearly as universal and certain as death and taxes.
Rebellious: All humans tend to be rebellious. It's just about as universal as it gets, and I don't mean kids throwing temper tantrums or something confined to teenagers. €Thou shall not' usually gets interpreted as €Thou shall' if I can get away with it! I mean who hasn't exceeded the speed limit now and again; parked in a €no parking' area or overstayed their parking time limit; dropped that piece of litter when no one was looking; engaged in inappropriate Internet use at work or maybe nicking a few pens and paperclips; failed to return a borrowed library book on time; or told the occasional €little white lie'? What about fudging just a little bit on your tax return and declaration?
Resurrection: We've all seen the Sun €die' at dusk only to be resurrected at dawn. The Moon €dies' at New Moon, but then comes back gradually growing brighter each night until it's Full Moon, then starts to slowly €die' again until it does €dies' again - death and resurrection. Some plants €die' in the winter, but are resurrected in the spring. A lawn that's been killed (mowed) usually survives to grow back again. A lizard can lose its tail but seemingly that tail is resurrected and grows back. So, viewing all these things, it's not surprising that humans think that they too will be resurrected after death.
Symmetry: Humans love symmetry, which might tend to reflect nature as nature often exhibits symmetrical traits. A sphere has perfect symmetry; symmetry in two-out-of-three dimensions might be a cylinder; human's exhibit symmetry in only one-out-of-three dimensions; left-right. But symmetry isn't confined to just geometry though that's probably the main kind of symmetry that one finds in nature apart from the biological like predator vs. prey or male vs. female. Humans apply symmetry to things that are relative and/or the more abstract - right vs. wrong; tall vs. short; black vs. white; heaven vs. hell; up vs. down; hot vs. cold; yin vs. yang - the list could be extended for quite a few more examples from politics to economics. However, as a general rule-of-thumb, for any concept humans conceive of, they will also conceive of an equal-and-opposite concept. Symmetry seems to be in our genes.
Three €R's': Humans can be both literate and numerate. My cats couldn't read the most basic three-year-old primer, no matter how much instruction I gave them. No cat can read and understand the word C A T; their paws aren't equipped to put pen to paper and €typing' or pawing on a computer keyboard is going to create gibberish. Still, cats specifically, and the rest of the animal kingdom in general, get by thank you very much without any need to read or write or calculate/crunch numbers. In fact, many ancient human societies or cultures never developed writing at all, and therefore reading, though they probably did calculations for various purposes, even if just in their head. Still, the odds are pretty good that the human species would exist today even if none of us or our ancestors ever had developed an ability to read and write. Yet being literate and numerate is one of those universals of the current human condition.
Time: All life forms on this planet, except those companion animals we've forced into adapting to our ways, set their biological clocks by natural time, usually the rising and elevation and setting of the Sun; the duration of daylight. To a lesser extent, the rising, setting and phases of the Moon play a role. All life forms on this planet, apart from those who live their entire life in eternal darkness - deep inside caves, deep underground, or in the abyssal depths - probably have the concept, assuming they have IQs high enough to have concepts, otherwise an awareness, of a day - sunrise to sunrise - or more likely half-days - sunrise to sunset, and sunset to sunrise. They certainly have no awareness or concept of, nor requirement to have any awareness or concept of, a second, minute, hour, week, month
Humour: Humans alone and collectively within the animal kingdom have a sense of humour. We tell and play practical jokes; comedy shows on TV abound as well as feature length comedy films. It's a rare work of literature that doesn't contain at least a few lighter moments; ditto most other works of drama. However, the question is why? Humour has no survival value in any Darwinian sense. I mean do your odds of surviving a shark attack just happen to lie in your telling the shark a few dirty jokes thus distracting it while rapidly back-pedalling out of the water? In any event, the transmission of humour usually resides in language, and humans were on the road to civilization way before we had language. So humour and survival do not seem to be linked. So, how do we explain this human trait? It's universal; it's yet another example of something's screwy somewhere.
Isms: We all feel more comfortable with our own kind. We tend to associate with others our own age, our own race, our own sex, our own religion, our own nationality, etc. Those who differ significantly from the standard €me' get isms attached. Racism; sexism; nationalism, etc. are cases in point. It's all discrimination on the grounds that someone else isn't virtually your clone physically and/or in terms of worldviews (belief systems).
Music: Music is an art form designed for the ears. There probably hasn't, isn't or will be anyone of any race, creed or culture, male or female, old or young, who hasn't, doesn't and won't respond positively to music of one type of another. Exactly why however is a bit mysterious. Music, apart from bird calls and other animal €noises' wasn't part of our natural primate ancestral background. You could hardly call crashing surf, thunder and howling winds musical. And while bird vocalizations and animal sounds have survival value - species recognition or identification, warning/danger cries, use in mating rituals - €humans' even multi-tens of thousands of years ago didn't need to sing or strike rocks or blow across reeds to communicate. Though the saying €music sooths the savage beast€ must have some significance, music appreciation seems to me to be more by design than by natural evolution. However, if we appreciate music by design, who was the designer and then what was the possible purpose behind that appreciation? If all music vanished from human society overnight, our life and civilization would still go on. Music is peripheral to our survival - then or now.
My (fill in the blank) Right or Wrong: The blank could represent spouse, child, family, town, county, state, country or even planet if faced with an alien presence or threat. That applies equally to other belief systems like religion or sports team. The logic of course is faulty in the extreme, but that is beside the point when you're engaging in your debate.
Mythical Creatures: There is no human culture on Earth that hasn't stocked a make-believe zoo with all manner of fantastic creatures. From dragons to thunderbirds, griffins to the hydra, Grendel and Pegasus, unicorns to hellhounds, they're all there and a whole lot more besides. Modern equivalents like Godzilla are clearly marketed as entertainment and fictional; not so marketed were the ancient beasts of €mythology' according to our ancient ancestors. Why did they have a need to €invent' so many weird beasties? Why did they believe these creatures existed? Perhaps the alternative explanation is that these mythical creatures weren't quite so mythical.
Rank Has Its Privileges: Are all men (and women) created equal? Not on your Nellie! In very society, past and present, and no doubt future, there, have been, are and will be the haves and have nots. That's nearly as universal and certain as death and taxes.
Rebellious: All humans tend to be rebellious. It's just about as universal as it gets, and I don't mean kids throwing temper tantrums or something confined to teenagers. €Thou shall not' usually gets interpreted as €Thou shall' if I can get away with it! I mean who hasn't exceeded the speed limit now and again; parked in a €no parking' area or overstayed their parking time limit; dropped that piece of litter when no one was looking; engaged in inappropriate Internet use at work or maybe nicking a few pens and paperclips; failed to return a borrowed library book on time; or told the occasional €little white lie'? What about fudging just a little bit on your tax return and declaration?
Resurrection: We've all seen the Sun €die' at dusk only to be resurrected at dawn. The Moon €dies' at New Moon, but then comes back gradually growing brighter each night until it's Full Moon, then starts to slowly €die' again until it does €dies' again - death and resurrection. Some plants €die' in the winter, but are resurrected in the spring. A lawn that's been killed (mowed) usually survives to grow back again. A lizard can lose its tail but seemingly that tail is resurrected and grows back. So, viewing all these things, it's not surprising that humans think that they too will be resurrected after death.
Symmetry: Humans love symmetry, which might tend to reflect nature as nature often exhibits symmetrical traits. A sphere has perfect symmetry; symmetry in two-out-of-three dimensions might be a cylinder; human's exhibit symmetry in only one-out-of-three dimensions; left-right. But symmetry isn't confined to just geometry though that's probably the main kind of symmetry that one finds in nature apart from the biological like predator vs. prey or male vs. female. Humans apply symmetry to things that are relative and/or the more abstract - right vs. wrong; tall vs. short; black vs. white; heaven vs. hell; up vs. down; hot vs. cold; yin vs. yang - the list could be extended for quite a few more examples from politics to economics. However, as a general rule-of-thumb, for any concept humans conceive of, they will also conceive of an equal-and-opposite concept. Symmetry seems to be in our genes.
Three €R's': Humans can be both literate and numerate. My cats couldn't read the most basic three-year-old primer, no matter how much instruction I gave them. No cat can read and understand the word C A T; their paws aren't equipped to put pen to paper and €typing' or pawing on a computer keyboard is going to create gibberish. Still, cats specifically, and the rest of the animal kingdom in general, get by thank you very much without any need to read or write or calculate/crunch numbers. In fact, many ancient human societies or cultures never developed writing at all, and therefore reading, though they probably did calculations for various purposes, even if just in their head. Still, the odds are pretty good that the human species would exist today even if none of us or our ancestors ever had developed an ability to read and write. Yet being literate and numerate is one of those universals of the current human condition.
Time: All life forms on this planet, except those companion animals we've forced into adapting to our ways, set their biological clocks by natural time, usually the rising and elevation and setting of the Sun; the duration of daylight. To a lesser extent, the rising, setting and phases of the Moon play a role. All life forms on this planet, apart from those who live their entire life in eternal darkness - deep inside caves, deep underground, or in the abyssal depths - probably have the concept, assuming they have IQs high enough to have concepts, otherwise an awareness, of a day - sunrise to sunrise - or more likely half-days - sunrise to sunset, and sunset to sunrise. They certainly have no awareness or concept of, nor requirement to have any awareness or concept of, a second, minute, hour, week, month
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