Other Animal Sciences Commons^™

Wild Justice - Honor And Fairness Among Beasts At Play, Marc Bekoff, Jessica Pierce

Social Cognition Collection

This essay challenges science’s traditional taboo against anthropomorphizing animals or considering their behavior as indicative of feelings similar to human emotions. In their new book Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, the authors argue that anthropomorphism is alive and well, as it should be. Here they describe some activities of animals, particularly animals at play, as clear signs that they have recognizable emotions and moral intelligence. Based on years of behavioral and cognitive research, the authors discuss in their book that animals exhibit a broad repertoire of moral behaviors, including empathy and cooperation, but here they concentrate on the …