Beastly Morality Conference

Friday, April 5, 2013

8:00am - 3:30pm

Emory Center for Ethics

1531 Dickey Drive

Atlanta, GA 30322

Beastly Morality Emerging scholarship in ethology, neuroscience, philosophy, religion, law and other disciplines contends that humans are not the only creatures who evaluate their behaviors against standards of right and wrong, good and bad: other animals also have been shown to judge actions and adjust their behaviors accordingly. What are the scientific, moral, philosophical and political implications of these findings? How might these lines of investigation influence our understanding of evolution and morality? Should species, or individuals within certain species, who display such a sense of morality be given greater moral consideration or status than those who do not? Why or why not? In which ways are the notions of humanity and animality challenged by these recent claims?

Emory Professor Frans B. M. de Waal, Director of the Living Links Center for the Advanced Study of Ape and Human Evolution at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, will present some reflections of his most recent work, The Bonobo and the Atheist: in search of humanism among the primates (WW Norton & Co., 2013)