Despite what Quinn says, humans are unique among the animal kingdom and this uniqueness does not stem from our being first among many animals to achieve intelligence and self-awareness. Our destiny is not to become teachers of the other animals as they reach this stage. I have to believe that our destiny or telos is to immortalize ourselves as much as possible. Two of my favorite novels, Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, offer excellent antidotes to Ishmael. Both novels unfold through a complex, intertwined, even fantastical plot structure and they share a similar premise.
Humans have the desire and the ability to immortalize themselves.
In addition, they teach Aristotle that reason is not the only path to immortality. Or, perhaps, the Franco-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas is correct, the route to the divine is through an ethical response to the other person. Perhaps the highest part of our nature is the ability to deliberate ethically about what is right and wrong. Or, perhaps, ethics is not even a choice, but rather we are commanded by a trace of the divine to be altruistic, to live for others.