# 4 What makes a human human?

Ovid’s tales of transformation, where humans are changed into gods, plants or animals, complicate the question of what makes a human human. Characters who have been transformed into trees continue to speak to their readers, expressing emotions and thoughts and using language. This forces Ovid’s readers to ask a big philosophical question: what is a human, and how do we define the category of humanity?

In the modern world, this question is being constantly asked. With machines and artificial intelligence threatening to take on roles that had previously been occupied by human workers, it is a huge philosophical question that is everywhere in our lives today. The question itself is not new, however. You will see that it has often been on the minds of those who have wondered about why humans and animals do not have the same rights, for instance, or have wanted to secure equal opportunities for all humans and work towards more equal societies.

OpenLearn - Exploring Ovid’s big ideas
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.