[Buddha-l] Virtuous nature and animal minds--from New Scientist Print Edition

[jkirk]

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg17523515.000-virtuous-
nature.html
 

I'm offering here just the last three paragraphs of this
interesting article. It now seems that animal science shows
nature as not only red in tooth and claw--animal nature is also
cooperative. Social learning in many species takes place in play.
Also, parent animals teach their young. Animals are more like us
than we thought.
 
Buddhism seems to recognise animals only as lower forms of life,
full only of thirst for life as their "happiness" (therefore,
don't kill them, all beings want to be happy), living in a kind
of animal hell world of their own, not possessing any form of
morality, only there to receive the jivas of unvirtuous humans;
but then, when the Buddha taught, there was no evolutionary
science comparable to what's available today. 
 
So this article is tending toward greater support for our
considering animals as so like us that compassion for them would
be enhanced, on the basis of making identification (the main
basis of compassion) with them not just a matter of
anthropomorphism, but based on knowledge. I would hope that as
this realization grows, it would stop the use of animals for
medical research. Computer modeling is increasingly useful for
the sorts of medical research now inflicted on animals.
Cheers, Joanna

--------------------------

Begin excerpt:

"I'm not arguing that there is a gene for fair or moral
behaviour. As with any behavioural trait, the underlying genetics
is bound to be complex, and environmental influences may be
large. No matter. Provided there is variation in levels of
morality among individuals, and provided virtue is rewarded by a
greater number of offspring, then any genes associated with good
behaviour are likely to accumulate in subsequent generations.
And the observation that play is rarely unfair or uncooperative
is surely an indication that natural selection acts to weed out
those who don't play by the rules.

What does all this tell us about human morality? First, we didn't
invent virtue- its origins are much more ancient than our own.
Secondly, we should stop seeing ourselves as morally superior to
other animals. True, our big brains endow us with a highly
sophisticated sense of what's right and wrong, but they also give
us much greater scope for manipulating others--to cheat and
deceive and try to benefit from immoral behaviour. In that sense,
animal morality might be "purer" than our own.

We should accept our moral responsibility towards other animals,
and that means developing and enforcing more restrictive
regulations governing animal use. There is growing evidence that
while animal minds vary from one species to another, they are not
so different from our own, and only when we accept this can we be
truly moral in our relations with other creatures and with nature
as a whole."