… The object of speech … is to indicate advantage and disadvantage and therefore also justice and injustice. In Politics, Aristotle considers the capacity for reason and speech to be the exclusive domain of man, which makes him unique in all of nature: “That Man is a political animal in a higher sense than a bee or any other gregarious creature is evident from the fact that nature, as we are fond of asserting, creates nothing without a purpose, and man is the only animal endowed with speech. Ancients and moderns alike accept the common-sense notion that humans are fundamentally distinct from beasts. Instead, we just exist, happily more advanced and evolved than the rest of creation.īut has science really debunked the traditional view that humans are qualitatively different from the animals? This traditional view - which accords quite nicely with human experience - is not strictly religious, but has been held by the brightest secular philosophers as well. Humans - in Tyson’s view - are not designed with a purpose. Tyson simply says, “In the tree of life, you are here, one tiny branch among countless millions.” In other words, as much as humans want to feel as if they have a special place in the universe, they actually don’t. When talking about humanity’s relationship with the rest of the cosmos, Dr.
It’s easy to see why this idea has taken hold. A central premise of traditional belief is that we were created separately from all the other animals. “There’s an understandable human need to distance ourselves from. Tyson, who presents a strictly materialistic, Darwinian account of the universe, humans are not really that different from other animals. Tyson describing? And what kind of “cosmic perspective” is this show promoting? The Nature and Destiny of HumanityĪccording to Dr. Tyson describes his scientific investigation of reality as “a soaring spiritual experience.” But what kind of spiritual experience is Dr. And with its good doses of awe and wonder, it can even affect you spiritually.” Tyson’s televised journeys through the sleek, redesigned “Ship of Imagination” are designed not only to inspire wonder at the universe’s magnificent diversity, but also to shape its audience’s views of the universe.Īt one point in the show’s second episode, Dr. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tyson states that Cosmos is the type of show that deserves a wide audience, because it can help inform people’s “cosmic perspective.” “Cosmos can influence you not only intellectually but emotionally. But, with the exception of Venus, which is described as “hellish,” Tyson’s tour is much more lighthearted, filled with special effects and a genuine interest in both the grandest and smallest elements of the cosmos. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an accomplished astrophysicist who is well known for his work at the Hayden Planetarium and the American Museum of Natural History, replaces Sagan, using his baritone voice and fatherly aura to guide viewers through the universe much like Virgil led Dante through the nine circles of hell. In this most recent incarnation of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Dr. A generation later, Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, has revived the show, which is devoted to a reverent, accessible, and almost giddy exploration of the universe. “The cosmos is all there is, was, or ever will be.” Carl Sagan recited this creed at the outset of each episode of Cosmos, the wildly popular PBS show that debuted in the 1980s.