Phil is (still) Phil, but is Phil human?

Any linguistic prescriptivist would tell you we've gotten lazy. We split infinitives, we end sentences with prepositions, but one thing we've gotten away with (with which we have gotten away) for far too long is our sloppy use of the word "humanity." We throw it around with little concern for the consequences. I can't even pretend that those consequences have been minor. As Carl Schmitt put it:

To confiscate the word humanity, to invoke and monopolize such a term probably has certain incalculable effects, sch as denying the enemy the quality of being human and declaring him to be an outlaw of humanity; and a war can thereby be driven to the most extreme inhumanity.

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, p 54

I think we can all get to that. But what if there is an "other" to compare ourselves against. Were that the case, humanity would be an acceptable concept according to Carl Schmitt's framework. That by no means simplifies matters. Grass gives us the opportunity to consider the implications of "human" as an almost moral classification.

One could diagram humanity until the Singularity, but I doubt we would ever reach a satisfying conclusion. We have a hard enough time dealing with differences between homo-sapiens that for all our talk of the search for intelligent life, I don't think we are ready to have our already fragile models, philosophies, and theologies broken wide open. In the event of "contact," I think we will all find a little bit of Father Sandoval in ourselves.

While Grass got me asking questions, it didn't give me good enough answers. If God created "very small beings" similar to microorganisms, how can we know who is the virus and who is the antibody? Can we really say that the Hippae are evil based on a single word they trampled into the floor of a cave? Earth would be screwed if aliens landed in the middle of a GWAR concert. Yeah, they probably are evil, but it wouldn't have mattered if Grass had been left on its own. Without humans, the baby "good" foxen would have been able to escape to trees and survive and there would have been some balance in the ecosystem. Also, if the foxen hadn't killed ALL of that one predator, then the bad Hippae would have been kept in check to some extent. These last are just a few miscellaneous quibbles, though.