Quiz 13

Budiansky argues Peterson saying that animals have no moral reason or ability to know what is right and to act upon it. Budiansky believes that animals are inferior to humans in this sense. A great example would be the case of the gorilla. In this instance, a gorilla saves a boy who falls by bringing him to the door/fence. Does the gorilla do this knowing that it is the right thing to do, or is it just playing around and fetching the boy like they do with the gorilla with a doll. Budiansky says that the gorilla has no moral values. They do not know right from wrong. Midgley disagrees with this statement. She believes that animals do have a sense of right and wrong, its just in a different form. For example if a human walks by a baby cub, they can easily be killed because the mother of the cub is protecting her baby. She does not know that we are just passing by. So, animals values are a lot differently than humans. Gorillas are some of the most enhanced species out there. They are very smart and can learn very well. So, overall Midgley believes that animals have moral values and Budiansky does not.

I believe with Midgley that animals do have moral values. They just have a different sense of them than we do. Why should we believe that we are better than animals and are more superior? If anything we have the responsibility to help them rather than consume them and act like they are of no value.