Overcoming veneer theory

animal sympathy

Jim Garrison

pp. 173-190

in: Suzanne RICE, A. G. Rud (eds), The educational significance of human and non-human animal interactions, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Ethics concerns right relationship with others and the world around us. I want to suggest that sympathy as found in all primates is the primordial origin of human ethics. Darwinian continuity establishes an inti-mate relationship between humans and other animals: Human nature is a part of nature as a whole. Recognizing this relationship is a worthy educational ideal; it helps curb excessive anthropocentrism by putting us in our proper place.

Cited authors

Darwin Charles