Tactful animals: How the study of touch can inform the animal morality debate

In this paper, we argue that scientists working on the animal morality debate have been operating with a narrow view of morality that prematurely limits the variety of moral practices that animals may be capable of. We show how this bias can be partially corrected by paying more attention to the tou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhilosophical psychology Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 1 - 27
Main Authors Monsó, Susana, Wrage, Birte
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
affiliation
animal morality
Animals
moral emotions
Morality
Nonhuman animals
touch
vulnerability
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Summary:In this paper, we argue that scientists working on the animal morality debate have been operating with a narrow view of morality that prematurely limits the variety of moral practices that animals may be capable of. We show how this bias can be partially corrected by paying more attention to the touch behaviors of animals. We argue that a careful examination of the ways in which animals engage in and navigate touch interactions can shed new light on current debates on animal morality, like the study of consolation behavior, while also revealing further forms that animal morality may take that have been neglected so far, like capacities of tolerance or trust. This defense is structured as an analysis of the three main functions of touch: the discriminative function, the affiliative function, and the vigilance function.
ISSN:0951-5089
1465-394X
DOI:10.1080/09515089.2020.1859100