When it comes to social interaction, the chimpanzees appear to be just as intelligent as we are.

The sturdiest pillars of human morality are compassion and a sense of justice.

To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.

Personally, I think it is possible to build a society that is moral on a nonreligious basis, but the jury is still out on that.

Popular culture bombards us with examples of animals being humanized for all sorts of purposes, ranging from education to entertainment to satire to propaganda. Walt Disney, for example, made us forget that Mickey is a mouse, and Donald a duck. George Orwell laid a cover of human societal ills over a population of livestock.

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

The role of inequity in society is grossly underestimated. Inequity is not good for your health, basically.