Morality In The Animal Kingdom...

[Philosophical Skeptic]

When I think of cases like Koko the gorilla, or that instance when a child fell into a gorilla pit & was saved by a gorilla, I tend to wonder if animals have morality like us. It doesn't even look like it's exclusive to primates, considering the numerous accounts of dogs willfully saving their owners' lives. Even other animals like cats & birds have been known to wake their owners up in case of fire, or other emergencies.

It seems to me that any animal capable of having an emotional connection with some one, whether that some one be human or other animal, is capable of empathy, & thus morality. That's it for now. Post Away.

[Thylacine]

When I think of cases like Koko the gorilla, or that instance when a child fell into a gorilla pit & was saved by a gorilla, I tend to wonder if animals have morality like us.

I expect that our primate cousins share a great deal with us.

It doesn't even look like it's exclusive to primates, considering the numerous accounts of dogs willfully saving their owners' lives. Even other animals like cats & birds have been known to wake their owners up in case of fire, or other emergencies.

Perhaps, but I suspect most of these cases are little more than embellished anecdotes that make a good story, so they get repeated or picked up by the media.

It seems to me that any animal capable of having an emotional connection with some one, whether that some one be human or other animal, is capable of empathy, & thus morality. That's it for now. Post Away.

Not being particularly religious, I don't believe that humans are fundamentally different from other animal species. We obviously have some unique qualities, but that in itself is hardly unique. Our cognitive and analytical abilities might be greater, but I see little evidence to indicate that our emotional makeup is all that different from other higher mammals. Our ability to ponder our emotions, however, (rather than simply accept them) might be shared (to an extent) by only a few higher primates.

Our intellectually drawn conclusions often differ from our (more primitive) emotional responses, and this sometimes produces unfortunate contradictions that exhibit themselves in various ways. Perhaps morality is simply one of the many mechanisms we use to reconcile our more primitive emotional selves with our more recently developed cognitive abilities. This isn't to suggest that morality, of a sort, couldn't exist in other animals, but its development and usage might be greater in higher primates.

A dog feels fear in, say, a house fire, but I doubt it fully understands the nature of the danger and the consequences of the danger for the other occupants. I have serious doubts about a dog's ability to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and make decisions about alerting others to the danger. More likely, the dog is alarmed, starts barking and runs to the owner (pack leader) in an attempt to quell its fear. We end up with the same net results (people and dog are saved), but the results stemmed from a purely emotional response in the dog instead of from an analytically arrived at course of action.

All speculation, of course.

[Philosophical Skeptic]

Well, if the dog was aware that its owners would get hurt, its emotional connection would probably cause it to save its owners. There are accounts of police & military dogs heroically rescuing their masters, though that's more because of training than awareness of the situation. It seems like our intellects, compounded by our emotions, do indeed cause our emotions to be much more dynamic than that of other animals.

An argument against my speculation one might make is that it's an animal's instinct to save those it depends on. Of course, human empathy is highly instinctual, too. Although some will argue that empathy is learned at a very early age. Anyways...

[Thylacine]

Well, if the dog was aware that its owners would get hurt, its emotional connection would probably cause it to save its owners.

True — at least for my beagle who, by the way, is pressing up a little too tightly against my feet as I'm writing this. I doubt, however, that she understands the concept of "hurt." She's horribly afraid of our laundry basket but thinks nothing of darting in front of a car. Which reminds me, it's time for her walk.

[Lance Kennedy]

When discussing this subject, we need to be aware of the danger of anthropomorphism.   However, I think we can assume certain emotions among the higher mammals.  I saw a TV doco recently which showed a wild female leopard that actually adopted a young antelope and tried to feed it.  Probably after eating its Mum!  

Lots of example of cross species nurturing exist in the record, which makes higher mammals very similar to humans in nurturing instinct.

On the other hand, we also see some pretty silly stories in the press.  We had one here, a bit over a year ago, about dolphins.   Some swimmers in the sea found themselves surrounded by dolphins, which were playing - slapping their tails etc.   One of the swimmers saw a dark body swim beneath them, and jumped to the conclusion that it was a great white shark  (It was probably one of the dolphins swimming past).  The press reported the story as a school of dolphins coming to protect the swimmers and chaing the 'shark' away.

[Philosophical Skeptic]

There's also the fact that alot of studies about animal intelligence & emotions are funded in part by Animal Rights groups who have an interest in the outcome of the results. Don't get me wrong, I love animals, but some of the people who promote animal rights make the whole movement look like a joke.

[Major Malfunction]

I saw a good one on TV about a guy who had a heart attack and his dog brought him the phone with no previous training.

But it might have been on the same show with the psychic starfish clones...

[ForestGreen]

Biology textbooks these days talk about altruistic and cooperative behaviour among animals. I prefer the word 'altruism' to 'morality' myself. Altruism can   be an advantageous trait, from an evolutionary point of view. It tends to occur most often between closely related organisms, but can occasionally occur across different species. (Then you also have the symbiotic relationships).

There tends to be a lot of talk in biology about selfish and competitive motives, as well as the opposite, like 'morality', but I think we have to be careful when projecting our own values onto what we observe in nature.

[gr8hands]

All living beings that have packs/pods/etc. have a sense of community and altruism.   The examples of this are legion, but here's a few:

Emperor penguins rotate who has to stand on the outside of the huddled group, so that no one has to suffer the cold more than anyone else.

Migratory birds rotate their positions in the "V" to enable everyone to have a chance at easier flying by riding in the wake.

Buffalo will protect the young of other adults by guarding them within a circle.

Whales will assist the sick or elderly in their pod to the surface, and to food.

And there are countless examples of mothers from one species nursing babies of another (even rival) species.