Primate Ethics

In Frans De Waal’ s Chimpanzee Justice, an example is offered, which is meant to show how the principle of reciprocity prevalent among chimpanzees is governed by the same sense of moral rightness and justice as it is among humans. Later Singer presents the principle of reciprocity by way of Confucius’ , A Single Word, in order to show how humans also value this principle just like primates. However, it is not the case that ALL human communities value the principle of reciprocity. There are different cultures in the world who hold many different values from one another. It seems as though Singer makes too bold of a statement when saying that significant ethical principle carry weight in EVERY human community because it is too general of a statement. A less bold assertion would be more acceptable. If Singer could show that every single human community holds a certain ethical principle, then we can buy into this claim, but he fails to do so in the two aforementioned examples. If Singer were able to convince us that his assertion were true, then this might show us that morality transcends into beings other than humans, and that would be a huge thing to show because we could assume that the moral community might transcend to all living things. Human ethical theories might apply to other species as well. However this is a very bold claim to make and it seems hard to prove because now we could have to consider new questions. Questions such as, whether certain ethical principles are universal in all communities? Also, whether all living communities ought to follow similar principles, why or why not, amongst many other questions.  Overall, with the reading Singer offers, it does not seem that we can accept his initial assertion seeing as he does not seem justified in making such claims. 
Similarly, in the NY time article Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior by Nicholas Wade (linked below), Wade seems to suggest that the roots of morality can be seen in the social behavior of monkeys and apes. In addition he goes on to say that all social animals have had to constrain or alter their behavior in various ways for group living to be worthwhile. These constraints, evident in monkeys and even more so in chimpanzees, are part of human inheritance, too, and in his view form the set of behaviors from which human morality has been shaped. This is certainly an interesting and different view about the origins of ethics as compared to the views I explore in the blog's earlier posts (under the origins of ethics header). Which view do you find more convincing? 

Article referenced above: http://primates.com/morality/index.html