Researching The Literature: Morality and the Elephant

This research helps me and my group within our own research as it helps us generate a more thorough understand of what human morality is and how if differs itself from the perceived morality of other animals. Moreover, it presents morality as being flexible, with its boundaries able to be adjusted to serve in a self interested fashion therefore this may correlate to with the finding we gather whist in Amsterdam

• Pro-social behaviour, which can arise for various reasons (kin selection, tactical sharing, mutualism; perhaps group selection in a few taxa)
• A sense of normativity and the importance of predictability, evolution has committed the naturalistic fallacy: what is, ought to be. This is a powerful element of morality that is not necessarily prosocial.
• A higher-level, cognitively based propensity to adjust the social context in which elements 1 and 2 operate, according to tactical expediency (i.e., politically).

Moore’s (2000) article ‘Morality and the Elephant’ (by Elephant Moore is referring to the proverb of the blind men and the elephant) breaks down what he perceives as the three elements of humans morality: pro-social behaviour; a normative imperative, and tendency to adjust to the boundaries of the social network to which these apply in a flexible, self- interested fashion.

the third elements, Moore’s believes, is the only one of the three elements that is unique to ourselves, and therefore is the differentiating factor between the morality of humans and the morality of other animals such as apes.

Moore, J. (2000). Morality and the elephant: Prosocial behaviour, normativity and fluctuating allegiances. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7(1-2), pp.52-55.

You are all right. But you are all wrong too. For each of you touched only one part of the animal.

the Blind Men and the Elephant, Parable