In animal organs and human tools we have the main difference between
men and animals. The animal obtains its food and subdues its enemies
with its own bodily organs; man does the same thing with the aid of
tools. Organ (organon) is a Greek word which also means tools. Organs
are natural, adnated (grown-on) tools of the animal. Tools are the
artificial organs of men. Better still, what the organ is to the
animal, the hand and tool is to man. The hands and tools perform the
functions that the animal must perform with its own organs. Owing
to the construction of the hand to hold various tools, it becomes a
general organ adapted to all kinds of work; it becomes therefore an
organ that can perform a variety of functions.
With the division of these functions, a broad field of development
is opened for men which animals do not know. Because the human hand
can use various tools, it can combine the functions of all possible
organs possessed by animals. Every animal is built and adapted to a
certain definite surrounding. Man, with his tools, is adapted to all
circumstances and equipped for all surroundings. The horse is built for
the prairie, and the monkey is built for the forest. In the forest, the
horse would be just as helpless as the monkey would be if brought to
the prairie. Man, on the other hand, uses the axe in the forest, and
the spade on the prairie. With his tools, man can force his way in all
parts of the world and establish himself all over. While almost all
animals can live in particular regions, such as supply their wants, and
if taken to different regions cannot exist, man has conquered the whole
world. Every animal has, as a zoölogist expressed it once, its strength
by which means it maintains itself in the struggle for existence, and
its weakness, owing to which it falls a prey to others and cannot
multiply itself. In this sense, man has only strength and no weakness.
Owing to his having tools, man is the equal of all animals. As these
tools do not remain stationary, but continually improve, man grows
above every animal. His tools make him master of all creation, the king
of the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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