I know there is something about our human species that makes us believe that we are special and superior. In his GroundWork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant believed that the thing that points to our personhood is our ability to reason. With that rationality, he suggest that ethics has more to do with reason(which people believe that only humans possess) than with our feelings(which other species are believed to possess.) Therefore it is argued that our ability to reason leads us to also recognize morality. And we humans are the only species who can do both. But are we really?
A few months ago, I posted about morality in infants and toddlers. Well I am going to go a little further -past our species and suggest that animals can ethically reason as well or at least show behaviors illustrating it. The video above shows some quite interesting conclusions in relationship to animals and morality. Through Behavioral studies, Frans de Waal has concluded that there is moral behavior such as Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity in animals . His studies are very interesting. Instead of leaving me in denial about other species ability to do as humans “highly” do, it leads me to be happy that animals, like us can partake in the joys of day to day morality.
For more on this idea, check out Dale Peterson’s The Moral Lives of Animals and The Moral Animal: Why we are the way we are by Robert Wright.