As those familiar with my commentaries and podcasts know, I have this thing about the inconsistent interpretation of human and animal behaviors. I don’t care a parrot’s patootie if we attribute a particular display to cognition, mindless conditioning or even dumb luck. But I get seriously annoyed when a behavior that’s attributed to some higher thought process in humans is dismissed as the result of a simple reflex or conditioning when displayed by an animal.
As you might imagine, there are some who don’t agree with me. 🙂 These same folks understandably have a cow when others even hint that, in addition to cognitive abilities, some animals might display what we humans consider moral awareness. This week’s podcast considers some common test scenarios used to determine the rules that govern human moral behavior that I consider from the nonhuman side.
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