Moral Apes

Jim Bell (70672.1241@CompuServe.COM)
02 Jan 97 19:00:14 EST

Thought Glenn might be interested in the book by Frans de Waal ("one of the
world's best known primatologists"-Sci. American) called Good Natured: The
Origin of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals (Harvard University
Press, 1996).

The review in the Sept. 1996 Sci American says he has marshalled a "strong
body of evidence" to suggest that humans and other animals share the
following:

* Sympathy as expressed in succor
* Special treatment of the disadvantaged
* Cognitive empathy
* Norms exemplified in both prescriptive and proscriptive
social rules
* Reciprocity embodied in the exchange of services
* Punishment for violators
* Concern for community
* Peacemaking and negotiation

His studies were on primates in captivity, demonstrating, de Waal claims,
"latent reserves of adaptive complexity and capacity."

Must be humans.

Jim