The more self-aware an animal is, the more empathetic it tends to be.

I've argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species. In chimpanzees and other animals, you see examples of sympathy, empathy, reciprocity, a willingness to follow social rules. Dogs are a good example of a species that have and obey social rules; that's why we like them so much, even though they're large carnivores.

The chimpanzees could tear me apart in no time. They're many times stronger than we are.

Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities.

When we are bad, we are worse than any primate that I know. And when we are good, we are actually better and more altruistic than any primate that I know.

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.

It is hard to get animals which normally pay little attention to each other to do things together. One can teach dolphins to jump simultaneously out of the water precisely because they show similar behavior spontaneously, but try to make two domestic cats jump together and you will fail.