Post by Zadkiel on Jul 1, 2016 10:30:28 GMT
All organisms work selfishly on their own behalf; expanding their populations, size and consumption unbridled by any moral constraints. What they don't have is the ability to tell self-affirming stories to justify their expansion, but then, they also don't have any moral constraint either. Hence, we think of animals as "moral patients", not "moral agents". We wonder what moral has to do with animals, the patients upon which we perform all sorts of surgery from animal testing to destroying their habits and eating them, but we don't condemn chimps, even our nearest relatives, for tearing live monkeys limb from limb, because we don't generally see them having the self-awareness to negotiate guilt over hurting each other.
