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Asked by eleanorcranch to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 15 Jun 2012.
Question: Do animals have morals?
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Kevin Mahon answered on 15 Jun 2012:
Deep question!
It’s tricky to say, mainly because morals are a human concept so we wouldn’t be able to define animals as having them.
However, there is a recent enough book that argues that animals do have a ‘moral code’ or sense of ‘fairness’ of sorts that works to hold social groups together.
It’s a fascinating read, as many people disagree and view it as controversial, I advise to look for yourself and see what you think!
The book is
Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff
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Joanna Cruden answered on 17 Jun 2012:
What an interesting question, I have given it some thought on this question and this is only my opinion, we can look at morals for humans which are effected by our upbringing, our religious beliefs and our ability to talk, having laws and enforcement of laws that we are expected to abide by which give us our moral code but each person has different morals.
Whereas animals are not weighed down by laws and being about to talk things through, they live on instinct and survival. If they were weighed down by morals then it would make it more difficult for them to survive. Mind you animals don’t kill each other without a reason and they do help each other sometimes without expecting a reward or a favour to be returned so I guess in their own way they do have morals of sorts but not in a conscious way like we do
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