Human Rights to Sapience Rights 2 – The Social Animal

Dolphins and whales are declared non-human persons in India. The scientific community establishes the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans to protect them, their environment, and their culture.

MRI scans dogs for the first time, neurologists predict they have a sentience level as that of a human child, and they may have emotions very similar to those we feel.

A poetic article shows incredible sentience in elephants, they mourn their dead, remember long lost friends and enemies. Research also shows they use a variety of primitive communication techniques, including gestures and vocals and even joke making, and might possibly be able to learn and reproduce new sounds after linking them to particular emotions.

If all these ideas are proven to be true and correct, what does this mean? Let's take a look at ourselves. Human beings feel as though we are entitled to certain rights. And we are, of course. We should not be subject to cruel conditions such as torture or slavery, because we find that life is something worth experiencing and it goes against fundamental goodness to deprive a soul from his or her life. We look at murder as a crime so grave its punishment in many cultures is to remove the culprit from society all together. But what makes the existence of a human any different from the existence of an ant? Perhaps it's the complexity of the existence. Ants are responsive, they detect a chemical, lain by other ants, and immediately begin to scout, attack, defend, escape, avoid, eat, etc. They can't respond with free thought, only in reflex. However, is that so different from us?

Technically speaking, whenever we experience pleasurable emotion, it's a chain reaction of dopamine or some similar chemical flowing through our bloodstreams, as is with most of our emotion. However, we do still have the ability to think freely, right? This falls into the argument of free-will. Many believe, with reasonable research to back up their arguments, that free-will is an illusion, a final product of a series of interactions between DNA, environment, chemical-induced emotion, and upbringing or learned social norms. Sociological research shows us that without proper upbringing, humans will go feral, acting in complete accordance with animals. The effect can be temporal, if you can integrate the child in youth, but it can be permanent if they are isolated too long; the book I'm pulling this from implies the turning point is somewhere between age 7 and 13. The author, a sociologist, concludes “society makes us human.”(Sociology, by James Henslin)

So maybe that's it, that's the determining factor, it explains everything. And I'll agree with it. The final ingredient, of all our chemical based emotions, of all our DNA encoded destinies, the thing that set's us apart, that makes us worthy of 'human rights', is the fact we operate in a society. The more anti-social you are, the more rights you loose; property in the form of fines, freedom in the form of imprisonment, and finally life in the form of capital punishment. These are things which we accept, things which are right. Don't go against your responsibilities to society and you keep your rights. Until of course people violate your rights, and human rights violations of course need not be expanded upon here and now, they are for the most part self evident: theft, rape, murder, torture, etc.

It is conformity to social standards that not only have allowed us to survive this long, and too conquer our world (in combination with our opposable thumbs), but to create vast banks of knowledge and begin to operate in the realm of ethics. We can do things because they're right, without regards to sensual pleasure, immediate reward, or personal gain. Many people around the world do things altruisticly, because they benefit others. We are the social animal.

Is this possible in the animal kingdom? Are we alone in our social standing. Well, it's very clear we're not the only social animal, dolphins, elephants, monkeys, primates, dogs, lions; perhaps it's a mammal thing. However, some studies show social and even hierarchical behavior in lizards too. So it's not to do with genetic structure, appearance, or physical attributes, but strictly social behavior.

Is it possible to provide rights to every animal on the planet? I doubt it, animals have been eating each other since we evolved into multi-cellular creatures. Humans need the nutrients from meat, our evolving to better hunt meat was what lead to the development of our brains and thus our mental capacities, the discovery of agriculture and civilization soon came to follow (from the book the End of Food, by Paul Roberts), but that doesn't change the fact that if we're more deserving than some animals, there is a reason. And I'll dare to venture to say its social behavior. Not all animals exhibit it, but as much research as possible is needed to determine which animals, like dolphins, are on an equal playing field and deserve special rights to protect their welfare. This of course, begins with protecting their environment.

But why social behavior? Why is this the determining factor? Besides the fact that if humans are deprived of their social upbringing, such as being abandoned in the wild at an early age, or locked in an attic for years by a psychotic father, they loose everything we refer to as the human potential; there is something redeeming about the ability to influence creatures around you. Symbolism plays a key role, when two or more creatures can share ideas, albeit via language, sound or gesture, and this interaction leads to further chains of more complex thought and behavior. Altruism, shown in humans and even sometimes in animals, such as animals which “adopt” the young of other animals for one example, is the first step towards ethical tendencies. Something about this, I say, something about acting socially, deserves the respect from that society. This respect is what we call rights. 

This of course links back to my previous Human to Sapience Rights article on robots and A.I. If we were to develop a machine capable of social behavior and freedom of thought and communication, even at the animal level, would they not be entitled to the same level of rights or welfare that we should be granting to other animals or even those we grant ourselves?

Remember, humans may rule the world, but we don't own it. If we are to enjoy the benefits of our capacities and capabilities, with freedom comes responsibility, and we are the shepherds of our Earth.

I hope you all enjoyed this article, it's one of my favorites, please share, and thanks for reading.