Humanist Program: What Does It Mean to Be Human?

Humans play a special role on our planet. We are the species that occupies the widest range of environments on Earth, from the arctic zone to the highland deserts, and everywhere in between. We adjust to different challenges and change the world around us in ways no other species on the planet can. And, most importantly, we are the only species who is able to understand the consequences of our actions and to steer the direction in which we want our world to grow. But defining humanity can be a difficult task, and there are a series of ways for us to start answering this question. In this talk, we will try to answer this question by looking for when we became human.

We will explore the origins of our species, from the beginning of our evolutionary lineage, roughly 8 million years ago, to the present. We will introduce the most important hominin species that went extinct in the past, but that contributed to us becoming the unique species that we are. While on this journey, we will talk about the main characteristics and traits that differentiate us from other primates, and discuss when they appeared for the first time in our evolutionary history. With that knowledge in hand, we will finally discuss how this helps us understand what it means to be human.

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Our speaker will be Mark Hubbe, Program Director from OSU's Anthropologic Public Outreach Program (APOP).

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Join us at 11:30 for free fruit, bagels, pastries, and coffee in the meeting room! The formal program starts at 12:00.