“(…) Marc Bekoff provides rational defense for what many of us already sense – that animals can feel sorrow, joy, anger, and pleasure much as we humans do.” This quotation of David Rothenburg, professor of philosophy, shows the respect and esteem that contemporary scientists offer the work of the biologist and ethologist Marc Bekoff. Bekoff is one of the leading behavioral scientists, who illustrates the emotional lives of animals and makes it an issue of scientific and public discussion. His work contributes to the better understanding of animals as our fellow beings. Not only are animals sentient beings, but the complexity of their emotions, and the profundity of their feelings are equivalent to emotional lives of human beings. This thesis, which Bekoff accentuates in his various articles and books, is not only of major importance for ethology as such, but also for philosophy, animal ethics and rights, and for the every-day manner in which animals get treatend and seen as.
Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of biology at the University of Colorado-Boulder (USA) and Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, which awarded him in 2000 with the Exemplar Award for his contributions to the field of animal behavior. Together with the renowed primatologist Jane Goodall he co-founded Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an organisation concerned with the ethical and respectful treatment of animals when their behavior gets studied. He is working in various organisations and associations in the field of animal studies, such as Animal Defenders, the Ethics Committee of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group, and is Honorary Member of Animalisti Italiani, Fundacion Altarriba, Great Ape Trust and, since 2006, of Rational Animal. Very important parts of Bekoff’s work are his numerous publications. He published more than 200 papers and 18 books, including the recent books The Smile of a Dolphin, Minding Animals and Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues: Reflections on Redecorating Nature. His most recent book The Emotional Lives of Animals will be published in march of this year. By showing that animal do experience emotions, it becomes clear that the way in which humans treat animals has to be considered and changed.
The success and importance of Bekoff’s work is of course influenced by the way in which he approaches the field of animal emotions and cognitive ethology. Being a rather new field of research and baring difficulties, such as the lacking possibility of verbal communication, there are various possiblities to access this topic. Some scientists, trying to approach the emotional lives of animals, claim that it is necessary to reach the highest possible objectivity. Antropomorphism has to be avoided, the data or the observation of an animal has to be objective and should not be influenced by human interpretation. However, in an empirical science, where the scientist and his way of seeing things is of major importance, this attitude can appear rather naive and limit the extrication of facts. In this context, Bekoff emphasizes the importance of antropomorphism, since this is the only way in which humans can access the minds of other beings. Bekoff explains this point in an interview with the journal “The Vegan”: “I believe that antropomorphism is necessary if we are to understand and explain animal behavior and empathise with other animals. Animals are just like human beings in many ways and so it is important to note the similarities” (Bekoff 2006, p.2). Or as he expresses it in a recent article on the public lives of animals: “Being antropomorphic is a tool to make the thoughts and feelings of other animals accessible to humans” (Bekoff 2006c, p. 125).
For Bekoff the privacy of mind is not an argument for not accessing certain areas of the lives of animals: “Of course other minds are privat but that doesn’t stop us from trying to understand what another human is thinking or feeling and using this information to make future compassionate decisions. We need to do the same thing with animals.” Also in other ways Bekoff takes a different and new road to many of his colleges. He argues that as long as we don’t have enough information to judge the emotional lives of individuals within a certain species, it is wiser to assume that they have feelings. In case it is than found that the hypothesis was wrong, the consequences are less dramatic: “I argue for a paradigm shift in how we study animal emotions and animal sentience and what we do with the information we already have (…). It’s about time that the sceptics and naysayer had to ‘prove’ their claims that animals don’t experience emotions (…). And until such claims are proven, let’s assume that numerous animals do experience rich emotions and do suffer all sorts of pain” (Bekoff 2006b, p. 28).
In general, Bekoff’s work shows that the division between human animals and non-human animals is questionable. Bekoff’s studies on animals have, hence, also a major impact on other disciplines, such as philosophy or ethics, since they indicate the fragility and arbitrariness of the human moral system.
For further informations:
Literature:
- Bekoff, M. (2003). Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Old Brains, New Bottlenecks. Journal of Religion and Science, 38, 911-941.
- Bekoff, M. (2006a). Minding Animals: An Interview with Marc Bekoff. The Vegan, 14 (3), 14-15.
- Bekoff, M. (2006b). Animal Emotions and Animal Sentience and Why They Matter: Blending “Science Sense” with Common Sense, Compassion and Heart. Animals, Trade and Ethics, 27-40.
- Bekoff, M. (2006c). The Public Lives of Animals. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 13 (5), 115-31.
- Bekoff, M. (2006d). Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues: Cognitive Ethology as the Unifiying Science for Understanding the Subjective, Emotional, Empathic, and Moral Lives of Animals. Journal of Religion and Science, 41, (March), 71-104.