Study: Animals can tell right from wrong (page 2)

Heaven

For those of you who love animals, and maybe those who do not, I would recommend reading "When Elephants Weep" by Jeffrey Masson ( http://www.jeffreymasson.com/animal-books/when-elephants-weep.html ). There is some facinating information and lovely stories in here about the emotional lives of animals.

Deputy Dog

elsewhere

Very interesting article. What I always hear is that animals can't think. Well, if 20 years of training dogs for different types of police, search and rescue work has taught me anything, it's that they can think, but, definitely not like people.

For example, I teach something called "intelligent disobedience". The people at Seeing Eye, have used this a great deal with Guide dogs, when they teach a dog to disobey the command to cross a street when a car or some other danger exists.

I don't know if I agree with using words like "moral" or "right and wrong" where animals are concerned. But they can decide what is advantageous.

Social behavior is important in many species and I'm sure it's hard wired in many cases. Things like, bite inhibition, retrieval and herding drives are good examples in dogs.

Showing "empathy" could be hardwired just as easily, without the animal having a sense of right and wrong.

A sociopath may not feel the pain of others, but, they still know right from wrong.

purplesofa

From The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins page 216 par 1

recommend this book to everyone, just to get another perspective, if nothing else.

Bees, wasps, ants, termites and, to a lesser extent, certain vertebrates such as naked mole rats, meerkats, and acorn woodpeckers, have evolved societies in which elder siblings care for younger siblings (with whiom they are likely to share the genes for doing the caring). In general, as my late colleague W.D. Hamilton showed, animales tend to care for, defend, share resources with, warn of danger, or otherwise show altruism towards close kin because of the statistical likelihood that kin will share copies of the same genes.

restrangled

Thanks elsewhere.

I think anyone that has owned a pet from, Cats to Dogs, to Birds, for any length of time see empathy from their animals.

When my brother died, my mother was inconsolable. Her two long time owned cats, literally took turns staying with her for hours purring up against her for 2 weeks. She was not petting them. Not that they knew my brother had died, but that she was in great emotional pain. They were a great comfort to her.

My old African grey parrot, always knew when I was distressed, and would get on my shoulder and snuggle against me making a crazy "PDDDDDDT" sound intermixed with quiet clucking.

My dogs have always been able to read me like a book, and know when to just be good boys and lay near me without demands.

I have seen animals mourn horribly for each other for weeks.

Dogs sharing a bone or treat....nahhhh, that don't happen. They do keep their eye out for the other guy to "drop it"....

r.

Deputy Dog

purps

There is no question Richard Dawkins is deluded where God is concerned. There is no question about the fact that animals can do things right and or wrong. The question is; do they know if what they are doing is moral or is it simply a genetically programmed behavior.

Dawkins would have us believe that we are no better than animals. I believe nature plays a big part in human behavior, but, at least some of us have the ability to resist nature, when morality demands, knowing right from wrong.

purplesofa

Dawkins would have us believe that we are no better than animals.

Just my opinion, but in many ways I think animals are better than humans!!!!!

Deputy Dog

purps

Just my opinion, but in many ways I think animals are better than humans!!!!!

I hope you're just kidding, in what ways do you mean?

Kudra

Well, I don't know it is is truely "moral sense" or just a recognition of actions-->consequences, but when I come home from going out shopping or something and my dog stays in the bedroom and has its ears flattened down and head lowered, I know I need to look around the house to find something that she has done... sure enough, there will be a chewed pair of underwear or pillow case or something...

Deputy Dog

Kudra

Just give her a treat the next few times she does something like that. See if she still has a "moral" problem then.

cameo-d

So does this prove that humans should be able to live fairly with each other without controllers like religion and politics?

isn't that the whole reason for the controllers, to create "order out of chaos"?

Or could it be that humans would have been orderly on their own if these controllers had never interferred?

Study: Animals can tell right from wrong

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