Amazing article on animals knowing, right from wrong!

[miraclefan]

I just had to post this here as soon as I finished reading it. This is just Amazing! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5373379/Animals-can-tell-right-from-wrong.html It seams, if this theory is proven correct this could change alot about how we humans view animals.

 

[Messianni]

The article calls it "controversial" yet it doesn't seem very earth-shattering to me. It makes sense; that's why even carnivores don't often go killing their own kind. Or why a primate cares for its young, or helps an injured mate or friend in need.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The article didn't mention hippos

Hippo attempting to save impala

There is also a video of a hippo saving an impale from wild dogs. The hippo stops the little impala from drowning.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

That's interesting, but what does it mean for making moral judgments about animals? The example in the video was really interesting. The hippo helping the impala was very sweet to the human mind that loves animals, but if the hippo was acting out of a kind of morality do you really want to say the crocodile was doing something immoral? He was just doing what crocs have done for tens of millions of years to survive.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Isn't the basis for morality the abilty to feel empathy towards the victim? To feel empathy towards a vixtim doesn't mean one has to feel that an immoral act has occured. For example, if there is a beach whale many humans would consider it immoral not to help the whale yet no immoral act caused the whale to be beached.

 

[RJDiogenes]

That's exactly it. Empathy is not an exclusive Human trait (nor a universal one among Humans, unfortunately). There are countless stories of domesticated animals helping Humans and other pets, or simply commiserating with them when they are hurt or in pain. And it's often been observed in the wild among groups of animals such as primates and elephants and so on; it's very interesting to see it happen between different species, though.