Wild elephants walking along a trail stop and spontaneously try to protect and assist a weak and dying fellow elephant. Laboratory rats, finding other rats caged nearby in distressing circumstances, proceed to rescue them. A chimpanzee in a zoo loses his own life trying to save an unrelated infant who has fallen into a watery moat.
The examples above and many others, argues Dale Peterson, show that our fellow creatures have powerful impulses toward cooperation, generosity, and fairness. Yet it is commonly held that humans are the only animals with a moral sense—that we are somehow above and apart from our fellow creatures.
This rigorous and stimulating book challenges that notion, and it shows the profound connections—the moral continuum—that link humans to many other species. Peterson shows how much animal behavior follows principles embodied in humanity's ancient moral codes, from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament. Understanding the moral lives of animals offers new insight into our own.
“Dale Peterson adds originality and astonishing clarity to a discussion that has engaged science and philosophy in sometimes heated debate. This book is a delight to read. The Moral Lives of Animals will change the way many think of animals, and it will vindicate what others have always known intuitively. It deserves to be an instant bestseller.”—Jane Goodall
“Instead of humanity having developed morality from scratch, by means of its superior intellect, things may well have started simpler. In our fellow primates, we already recognize many of the tendencies that gave rise to the moral emotions. Dale Peterson does an excellent and engaging job explaining how the one may have led to the other. In doing so, he places us closer to other animals than many a moral philosopher would ever admit.”—Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy
“The Moral Lives of Animals is without question the most fascinating book I’ve read in many, many years—a marvelously written page-turner about an important subject which until now has received little if any attention. Well, all that has changed. I can think of no other work that so clearly depicts our place in the animal kingdom, showing as it does how the forces of society work on other species much as they do on ours. The large number of stories that make this point are riveting. Everything in the book is riveting. You will read it with your hair on end and your eyes wide, just like some of the animal subjects herein when faced with an intense situation. There’s a special place in the hearts of many of us for books that express the ‘one-ness’ of life on earth, and this book tops them all.”—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs
“The Moral Lives of Animals is a breathtaking tour-de-force of enormous scope and deep importance. Filled with vivid and compelling stories, backed by numerous scientific studies, these pages should change the way we look at the workings of the hearts and minds of other species—as well as our own. Every literate human on earth should read it.”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Good, Good Pig and Birdology
“The Moral Lives of Animals is a most-welcomed discussion of a complex and controversial question—are nonhuman animals moral beings whose lives are regulated by social codes of conduct and who know right from wrong? Renowned author Dale Peterson takes us on a wide-ranging discussion of a wide variety of animals who clearly show that they know what’s expected of them in various social situations and what they're supposed to do so that they’re accepted into their society and their social groups can run smoothly. Packed with good stories and scientific data, and grounded in sound evolutionary theory, this book provides a convincing argument that animals have rich moral lives that remind of us of our own. It will change the way in which ‘mere animals’ are viewed and open our eyes to who these beings truly are.”—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado professor emeritus, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals; Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals; and The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons for Expanding our Compassion Footprint
“This is a book that could actually change readers’ assumptions, opinions and beliefs about the differences between Homo sapiens and other animals . . . Peterson traces an ambitious and exciting arc between gender relations, hierarchal authoritarian structures, ownership and displays of affiliation, and proposes that we have veered from Darwin’s findings that we are not unique, and that our fellow creatures have much higher order of feelings then we might be comfortable with. Sharing fascinating anecdotes about elephants, whales and primates, Peterson highlights the unity rather than diversity of social structures around sharing food, intimacy, competition for resources, grooming, mourning and dominance. A thorough and sophisticated book, yet accessible and enjoyable even for those with little previous exposure to the topic.”—Kirkus Reviews
“As he breaks down moral issues of behavior into larger issues such as authority, possession, cooperation, flexibility and peace, Peterson gives examples from scientific studies of animal behavior that demonstrate the moral 'rule' in question. Species range from fireflies to bonobos, but all illustrate moral behavior and all show us that we are not alone in possessing a moral code.”—Booklist
Dale Peterson's biography, Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) was a New York Times Notable Book and Boston Globe Best Book of 2006. His other publications include Visions of Caliban (with Jane Goodall), and Demonic Males (with Richard Wrangham). Peterson lectures in English at Tufts University near Boston.
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