Naturalizing cruelty
Biology and Philosophy 24 (1):21–34 (2009)
| Abstract | Cruelty is widely regarded to be a uniquely human trait. This follows from a standard definition of cruelty as involving the deliberate infliction of suffering together with the empirical claim that humans are unique in their ability to attribute suffering (or any mental state) to other creatures. In this paper I argue that this definition is not optimum for the purposes of scientific inquiry. I suggest that its intuitive appeal stems from our abhorrence of cruelty, and our corresponding desire to define cruelty in such a way that it is almost always morally wrong. Scientifically speaking this is an arbitrary condition that inhibits our attempt to study cruelty as a natural phenomenon. I propose a fully naturalized definition of cruelty, one that considerably expands the range of creatures and behaviors that may be conceived as cruel. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,882 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesRalf-Peter Behrendt (2006). Cruelty as by-Product of Ritualisation of Intraspecific Aggression in Cultural Evolution. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):226-227.
Paulo D. Barrozo (2007). Punishing Cruelly: Punishment, Cruelty, and Mercy. Criminal Law and Philosophy 2 (1):67-84.
Jaak Panksepp (2006). The Affective Neuroeconomics of Social Brains: One Man's Cruelty is Another's Suffering. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):234-235.
Mika Haritos-Fatouros (2006). Cruelty: A Dispositional or a Situational Behavior in Man? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):230-230.
Albert Bandura (2006). A Murky Portrait of Human Cruelty. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):225-226.
Andrew Nicholas Rowan (2006). Animal Cruelty: Definitions and Sociology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):238-239.
Katy Tapper (2006). Predation Versus Competition and the Importance of Manipulable Causes. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):243-244.
Harold Herzog & Arnold Arluke (2006). Human–Animal Connections: Recent Findings on the Anthrozoology of Cruelty. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):230-231.
Nick Zangwill (2006). Explaining Human Cruelty. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3):245-246.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads42 ( #27,634 of 556,909 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #64,931 of 556,909 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
