19 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Term "Higher Animals"
So glibly do the phrases 'higher animals' and 'lower animals' trip off our tongues that it
comes as a shock to realize that, far from effortlessly slotting into evolutionary thinking as one
might suppose, they were - and are - deeply antithetical to it. We think we know that chimpanzees
are higher animals and earthworms are lower, we think we've always known what that means, and
we think evolution makes it even clearer. But it doesn't. It is by no means clear that it means
anything at all. Or...Is meaningless and confuses people.