The One and Only Ivan

I just learned about The One and Only Ivan (from a school book order ad announcing it as this year's Newberry Award winner). Quite the coincidence since I just recently read an allusion to a gorilla living in a mall in a paper by Dale Jamieson, but had not been aware of the real story of the real Ivan. This looks like something I must read (kid's book or not; who's counting?). From page 3 (thanks Amazon preview):

patience

I've learned to understand human words over the years, but understanding human speech is not the same as understanding humans.

Humans speak too much. They chatter like chimps, crowding the world with their noise even when they have nothing to say.

It took me some time to recognize all those humans sounds, to weave words into things. But I was patient.

Patient is a useful way to be when you're an ape.

Gorillas are as patient as stones. Humans, not so much.

Apparently it's on backorder at Amazon. Guess I'll have to be ordering books off my daughter's book order for myself!

Animals and Morality: What Is the Question?

"Can animals be moral?" Well, can they be immoral? Is the question: can other animals emulate some of our standards of goodness? (Can animals be utilitarians? Kantians?) Or is it whether they have their own standards on which they can succeed or fail? Do animals have standards? (Certainly, many animals seem to have expectations.) Remember: human morality is not one thing. (At least at the level of anthropological description.) And much within our moral thinking is essentially contestable. (Do other animals have moral disagreements?)

On the study of animals in order to understand "the origins of morality": Which morality? Whose values?

(Thinking about this stuff and reading josh blog has put me in an aphoristic mood...)