Tracing the roots of human morality in animals


Life 15 May 2013

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Bonobos are more likely than chimps to have concern for each other (Image: ZSSD/Minden Pictures/FLPA)


But in The Bonobo and the Atheist, primatologist Frans de Waal argues that there’s another answer that fits the data better: morality comes from our evolutionary past as a social primate. Like our closest relatives the apes, humans evolved in small, tightly knit, cooperative groups. As a result, again like the apes, we are exquisitely sensitive to one another’s moods, needs and intentions.



In his new work, he bolsters the argument by drawing on a lot of new research, carefully footnoted for those who want to dig deeper. De Waal distinguishes two degrees of morality. The first he calls “one-on-one morality”, which governs how an individual can expect to be treated, and the second “community concern”, a larger, more abstract concept that extends to the harmony of the group as a whole.




If he’s right, then there may be no absolute code of right and wrong out there to be discovered. Instead, each individual’s evolved sense of empathy and concern for the group may help shape the group’s consensus on what kind of behaviour is appropriate. In short, says de Waal, morality may be something we all have to work out together. It’s a persuasive argument, and de Waal’s cautious and evidence-based approach is one that many New Scientist readers are sure to find congenial.

“Individual empathy and concern for the group may shape consensus on what behaviour is appropriate”

That careful approach is less evident in another book covering some of the same ground. In How Animals Grieve, anthropologist Barbara King sets out to explore the question of whether non-human animals grieve for their dead. It’s an intriguing question, but unfortunately King’s book is largely a succession of anecdotes: the cat who roams the house, crying, in search of its dead litter mate; the dog who waits daily at the train station for its dead master; a dolphin trying to keep her dead calf afloat for days.




How Animals Grieve

Barbara J. King

University of Chicago Press

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