Animal morality: What is the debate about?

Biology and Philosophy 32 (6):1151-1183 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Empirical studies of the social lives of non-human primates, cetaceans, and other social animals have prompted scientists and philosophers to debate the question of whether morality and moral cognition exists in non-human animals. Some researchers have argued that morality does exist in several animal species, others that these species may possess various evolutionary building blocks or precursors to morality, but not quite the genuine article, while some have argued that nothing remotely resembling morality can be found in any non-human species. However, these different positions on animal morality generally appear to be motivated more by different conceptions of how the term “morality” is to be defined than by empirical disagreements about animal social behaviour and psychology. After delving deeper into the goals and methodologies of various of the protagonists, I argue that, despite appearances, there are actually two importantly distinct debates over animal morality going on, corresponding to two quite different ways of thinking about what it is to define “morality”, “moral cognition”, and associated notions. Several apparent skirmishes in the literature are thus cases of researchers simply talking past each other. I then focus on what I take to be the core debate over animal morality, which is concerned with understanding the nature and phylogenetic distribution of morality conceived as a psychological natural kind. I argue that this debate is in fact largely terminological and non-substantive. Finally, I reflect on how this core debate might best be re-framed.

Similar books and articles

Moralność naukowców eksperymentujących na zwierzętach.Andrzej Elżanowski - 2015 - Przeglad Filozoficzny - Nowa Seria 94 (2):287-299, 470-471.
Liberal Morality and Socialist Morality.W. B. Gallie - 1949 - Philosophy 24 (91):318 - 334.
Morality's Critics and Defenders: A Philosophical Dialogue.Timm Triplett - 2014 - Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Morality and Religion: A Psychological Perspective.Anca Mustea, Oana Negru & Adrian Opre - 2010 - Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies 9 (26):18-35.
Learning Ethics From Our Relationships with Animals.Maurice Hamington - 2008 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 22 (2):177-188.
Morality, Adapted.Benjamin Sachs - 2010 - Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 53 (4):624-629.
Beastly Morality: Animals as Ethical Agents.Jonathan Kadane Crane (ed.) - 2015 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Reflections on The Evolution Of Morality.Christine Korsgaard - 2010 - The Amherst Lecture in Philosophy 5:1-29.
Evolution, animals, and the basis of morality.Colin McGinn - 1979 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 22 (1-4):81 – 99.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-10-09

Downloads
2,581 (#2,346)

6 months
671 (#835)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Simon Fitzpatrick
John Carroll University

Citations of this work

Naïve Normativity: The Social Foundation of Moral Cognition.Kristin Andrews - 2020 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 (1):36-56.
Chimpanzee normativity: evidence and objections.Simon Fitzpatrick - 2020 - Biology and Philosophy 35 (4):1-28.
Animal moral psychologies.Susana Monsó & Kristin Andrews - forthcoming - In John M. Doris & Manuel Vargas (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 13 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex.Charles Darwin - 1898 - New York: Plume. Edited by Carl Zimmer.
The sources of normativity.Christine M. Korsgaard - 1996 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Onora O'Neill.
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40).David Hume - 1969 - Mineola, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. Edited by Ernest Campbell Mossner.

View all 63 references / Add more references