The Moral Lives of Animals - Tapa dura

Críticas

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.... Everything in the book is riveting. You will read it with your hair on end and your eyes wide... (Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Secret Life of Dogs)

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 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)

... 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. (Mark Bekoff, author of The Animal Manifesto)

Reseña del editor

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 we Homo sapiens 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's biography Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man was a New York Times Book Review 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.