Dyrenes empati, moral og kulturelle relasjoner

[Gjest]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140202-dolphins-taiji-japan-whales-marine-animal-altruism-science/

Utdrag:

"Animal Minds: A Paradigm Shift

For most of the 20th century, scientists taught us to regard other animals essentially as robots.

Nonhuman animals were merely reactive beings: They lacked thoughts and emotions, and we were instructed to disregard any behaviors in other species that we might think of as human—or humane. Only humans loved, laughed, helped others, and grieved.

Scientists also seldom collected data or observations about animals' emotional displays (other than anger) or altruistic behaviors because they were likely to be branded as anthropomorphic sentimentalists.

In the past two decades, however, our understanding of the animal mind has changed. A growing number of scientists, evolutionary biologists in particular, no longer see humans and all other animals as separated by a cognitive chasm.

Rather, they recognize that the brains of all animals, including the human animal, share many of the same qualities and abilities because they are designed for many of the same tasks and have a general, common ancestry.

That's why scientists are now searching for the roots of empathy and altruism in other species and are collecting the kinds of anecdotes I describe here. (Thirty or more years ago, these meaningful observations would likely have ended up in the dustbin.)

Animals do think and feel, and sometimes they surprise us by acting humanely. Given a chance, the humpback will save the seal.

[…]

Who Is a Person?

Many of us are struggling these days to redefine our relationship with other animals. There are calls for certain species, including whales, dolphins, elephants, and chimpanzees, to be considered persons with rights.

It required many centuries for human societies to recognize that other people had rights, and extending some kinds of rights—at a minimum, not being kept in captivity or used in biomedical research—to other animals is an even greater challenge. It might even seem quixotic, but a growing list of countries, including Japan, no longer allow invasive research on chimpanzees.

And that we are wrestling with this issue at all suggests that we know that our treatment of other animals is not always right, and that events such as those at Taiji are wrong."