How we
can go about building a culture of empathy?
I think about that a lot, in fact a book that I just sent off that
will be out next year called, "Ignoring Nature No More: The Case
for Compassionate Conservation". I see a lots of ways that we can
build a culture of empathy... Sub Conference: Science
Sub Conference:
Animals
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the
University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a Fellow of the Animal Behavior
Society
Studied coyotes, birds, penguins, etc
interested in animal protection
always been motivated by compassion for animals and
the whole notion of empathy
02:00 Tour of website
long list of books
Always felt non human animals should be protected
don't know if they need rights or if that's the way
to go
I like to talk about animal protection not animal
welfare or animal rights
in some way animal welfare is a copout
animal welfare
animal rights - turns off a lot of people
I can make good inroads when I talk about compassion
and empathy for animals in terms of animal protection
04:00 I'm looking at How do we build a culture of
empathy and compassion in the largest sence? It seems that looking at
how do we have empathy and compassion for animals is a part of that.
Do you have thoughts about How we can go about building a culture of
empathy?
I think about that a lot, in fact a book that I just
sent off that will be out next year called, "Ignoring Nature No
More: The Case for Compassionate Conservation". I see a lots of ways
that we can build a culture of empathy, and given my own interests I
see "Compassionate Conservation" as being almost like a social
movement. It's acting like a collective, people with common
interests to pursue them and to pursue them and act on their
feelings of empathy, if you will. It's really hard to find people
who don't empathize with animals or care about animals.
explain to people - show them by example how
empathy and compassion can be cased out in terms of actions for
animals.
pay off for humans
we feel better
we too are animals
wellbeing of individual animals - protect spices
like empathy for individuals
7:13 - What does empathy for individuals look like?
reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone
restore and create ecosystems in a more humane way
looking at it at the individual level
9:15 - Writing a book now, "Rewilding our Hearts"
I see it as a more personal level
building corridors between ourselves, among ourselves
to allow animals to exist
the basic element for Rewilding our Hearts is
building a culture of empathy. Where people feel comfortable talking
about it.
Scientists and many of my colleges shutter when they
hear the words empathy or compassion.
I see a culture of empathy, in fact I was writing
about this today and using your work, saying that the outcome will
be waving in a rewilding process of our own hears, our own minds,
our own psyches', and making that the paradigm for building a
culture of empathy.
11:20 - is the rewilding getting back to our inner
nature. Something about connecting to ourselves to a deeper
truth,
it's reconnecting to who we are.
more data is coming out that we are more
compassionate, fair and empathic than we ever though ourselves to
be.
many books about this
animals are very empathic
12:40 The rewilding is almost like getting back to our
own inner empathy? It's seeing that empathy is this basic core value
in all of us and perhaps in animals as well.
exactly, I was writing today that we need to make
empathy and compassion social values. exactly
It's not asking anyone to do or be anyone other than
who we are.
that's a paradigm shift and going to take a while,
it's not going to happen overnight.
I think it's going to catch on.
there's research that shows it feels good to be fair.
to be nice
when we display empathy the reward systems in our
brains fire.
empathy and compassion feels good
For me it's just about putting out the ideas and
thinking about them and talking about them to other people.
14:20 So, one of the ways of building a culture of
empathy is bringing up the subject and start dialoging about it, and
getting people to think about it, and discuss it.
throw the ideas out there and people will grab them
story of biology student that doesn't want to harm
animals.
16:30 There you go, how do you build a culture of
empathy... I do a lot of work with Jane Goodall's program, with
kids. that's how I'm going to build a culture of empathy by getting to
youngsters before their education destroys them. They're naturalists,
they're compassionate, and not let the education system destroy their
empathic connections to animals in the worlds.
17:00 I was the kid the burned ants with the magnifying
glass.
yeah, I squashed some ant.. not as many as most
people did
when I was young I was always minding and caring for
animals.
came from being raised in a compassionate home.
very compassionate and empathic mother,
it's there in all of us.
I have no idea why people go in different ways
one reason is that authorities, like biology
teachers, tell them this is what you have to do.
19:00 The use of science for building a culture of
empathy?
Darwin - evolutionary of continuity, difference in
degree
we have something, other animals have it as well
21:50 What does that do for us that animals have
empathy? How does it affect how we interact with them?
It should mandate that we don't harm them.
23:20 - Your animal manifesto - what was that?
animals telling us to treat us better or leave us
alone.
we're asking people to add empathy and compassion to
the world.
I'm not saying science is the only answer.
25:00 What are some of the other answers?
I like going on gut feelings and spirituality
28:50 What about the compassion footprint idea?
what actions would expand this footprint
a work in progress
re-wilding our hearts - re-empathizing our hearts
we are the re generation
need to get out of the re mindset
we need to do what's natural
just start being,
exactly,,
I think this culture of empathy had an amazing
amount of force and its going to take a lot of work, but because we're
tapping into our basic nature, it may not be as difficult as some
think it is. It's going to be frustrating. You just have to keep doing
it, and never say never. Leap and the net will appear.
2013-11-13 -
Professor says science justifies compassion for animals
"Dr. Marc Bekoff isn’t just a compassionate person; he’s a scientist who
presents plenty of evidence to make a practical case for compassion
toward animals. Tonight he will speak on the topic at the Tattered Cover
Bookstore on 16th Street in Denver as he promotes his newest book on
animal behavior: “Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed: The Fascinating
Science of Animal Intelligence, Emotions, Friendship, and Conservation”.
Yes, Bekoff is as honest and upfront as he is analytical, and while he
keeps a practical, professional tone in his approach, he makes no bones
about being compassionate toward all creatures great and small. "
2010-02-10
Empathic Civilization': Why Animals Deserve Our Empathy Too
"A number of recent books in addition to Jeremy Rifkin's "The Empathic
Civilization" have been concerned with the importance and prevalence of
human empathy. These include
Dacher Keltner's "Born To be Good," D.
Keltner et al. "
The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of
Human Goodness," and
Frans de Waal's "The Age of Empathy."
Given my own background in animal behavior
and cognitive ethology, I've written about empathy and its relationship
to fairness and moral behavior from the nonhuman animal's (animal's)
point of view in
"The Emotional Lives of Animals,"
"The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons For
Expanding Our Compassion Footprint," and
with Jessica Pierce in "Wild Justice: The
Moral Lives of Animals."
These books show that the competitive
"nature red in tooth and claw" paradigm doesn't accurately reflect the
way in which animals interact, and that we truly can be called Homo
empathicus with clear evolutionary roots of our own empathic behavior
present in other animals. "
"There are always "surprises" emerging from studies of
the cognitive, emotional, and moral lives of nonhuman animals (animals)
and among the discoveries that received a good deal of attention was
detailed research published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals that
showed that chickens, mice and rats displayed empathy." Empathic Rats
and Ravishing Ravens" has some strong examples, and in that essay I
noted how over the past few years scientists have learned much about the
moral lives of animals. Now we know rats display this same empathy."
2012-01-12
- Do Rats Feel Empathy?
A new study finds rats prefer helping others over eating sweets. What
does that mean for the way we treat animals? Anyone who’s kept up with
the latest and greatest about the
cognitive, emotional, and moral lives of nonhuman animals knows
surprises are being uncovered almost daily, and that many non-primate
animals are showing intellectual and emotional capacities that rival
those of the great apes. Some fascinating new results about empathy in
laboratory rats caution against our tooting our “we’re so special” horn
too loudly or proudly.
2011-12-08 -
Empathic Rats and Ravishing Ravens
Rats and ravens caution us about proudly tooting our "aren't we special"
horn. A new study shows rats display empathy-driven behavior to help
other rats in distress while another has demonstrated that ravens use
body language and gestures to communicate with other ravens. Best to
keep an open mind about the amazing cognitive and emotional capacities
of other animals. Read More
2011-03-09 -
Empathic chickens and cooperative elephants: Emotional intelligence
expands its range again
Chickens feel one another's pain and elephants know when they need help
The more we actually study animals the more we learn about their
emotional lives and cognitive skills. A few years ago a prestigious
research group discovered that mice displayed empathy but caused a good
deal of pain to the mice being studied. Now we've just learned that
chickens also feel one another's pain.
A forward-looking and long overdue symposium calledCompassionate
Conservation will
be held from September 1 - 3, 2010 in Lady Margaret Hall at the
University of Oxford. The meeting, sponsored by the Wildlife
Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU)
and theBorn
Free Foundation,
will focus on major themes including animal welfare and the conservation
of wild animals, captive animal welfare and conservation, conservation
consequences of wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and release, and the
international trade in live wild animals.
2010-03-10 -
Empathic Civilization': Why Animals Deserve Our Empathy Too
I've written about empathy and its relationship to fairness and moral
behavior from the nonhuman animal's (animal's) point of view.. Many
animals are far more empathic and fair than many people realize. Even
mice are empathic beings and capuchin monkeys and domestic dogs expect
to be treated fairly. Individuals who are short-changed during a
bartering transaction by being offered a less preferred treat refuse to
cooperate with researchers.
INCREASING OUR COMPASSION FOOTPRINT
- Literati Network PDF Our relationships with animals are
wide-ranging. When people tell me that they love animals and then harm
or kill them I tell them I’m glad they don’t love me. Many individuals,
including scientists, ignore their responsibility when they interact
with animals and fail to recognize that doing something in the
name of science, which usually means in the name of humans, is not an
adequate reason for intentionally causing suffering, pain, or death.
“Good welfare” usually is not “good enough.” Existing regulations allow
animals to be treated in regrettable ways that demean us as a species.
Compassion is the key for bettering both animal and human lives. A good
way to make the world a more compassionate place for animals is to
increase our compassion footprint. We could begin by deciding that we
will not intrude on animals’ lives unless our actions are in the best
interests of the animals irrespective of our desires. It is simple to
make more compassionate choices about what we eat and wear and how we
educate students, conduct research, and entertain ourselves at the
expense of animals. The time to make these changes is long overdue.....
