The Moral Sense of Animals

Here is a choice of questions.

1. In the experiment with the Capuchin Monkeys, were you convinced that the animals’ behavior was motivated by a sense of unfairness?  Yes or no? If yes, try to identify what the animals did to show that they felt unfairly treated.  And what is it about the behavior you identify that makes it a sign of a sense of unfairness?  If you say no, then why was their behavior unrelated to a sense of fairness?  

2. In the 1937 clip showing the Chimpanzee experiment, one of the Chimps cheated during the experiment.  De Wall mentioned the cheating but did not comment on it.  The question is, does the occurrence of cheating invalidate the conclusion that De Waal draws from the experiment? Or does cheating somehow reinforce his conclusion?  

3.  Think back to earlier in the semester.  We talked about whether ethics is solely a matter of what society says is right and wrong, OR whether there was some deeper basis for the human moral sense.  For example, possibly morals are a naturally evolved system for regulating behavior.  The question is, does the behavior of the animals in the video better support one or the other of the two claims just mentioned?  How?