Welcome,
enlightened viewers
to Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
For thousands of years,
dolphins have been known
as some of wittiest,
most sensitive mammals
on Earth.
In Western culture,
references to dolphins
first appear
in Greek mythology
as helpers of humankind,
for example, when
rescuing the poet Arion
from drowning
and carrying him safely
back to land.
Along with whales
and porpoises, dolphins
form the order Cetacea.
They live in
complex social groups
called “pods.”
For Bottlenose dolphins,
the average pod size
is seven members.
To date, 33 species
of these awe-inspiring
ocean dwellers
have been identified
around the world,
and scientists have found
that some have
a brain-to-body-mass ratio
greater than or equal to
that of humans.
When you look at dolphins,
a much older species,
you realize that
they basically came up
with a solution for
the long-term survivability
of their species.
You have a big brain,
a being in the ocean who
doesn't over populate,
doesn't go to war
with one another.
Dr. Thomas White is
a professor
of business ethics
and director of the Center
for Ethics and Business
at Loyola Marymount
University, USA,
a Fellow of the Oxford
Centre for Animal Ethics,
and a scientific advisor
to the non-profit
research organization
the Wild Dolphin Project.
He is also the author
of the thoughtful book,
“In Defense of Dolphins:
The New Moral Frontier,”
and today on our program,
he discusses
his recent research
on the intriguing world
of dolphins
and presents his
philosophical perspective,
which calls
for regarding them
as “non-human persons”
due to their intellectual and
emotional sophistication.
My PhD is in philosophy
and I specialized
for 20 years in 16th century
Renaissance humanism.
I had done
a short ethics textbook
for Prentice Hall.
They asked me if I would
then do one of these big
introductory textbooks, but
they wanted the chapters
to be structured
so that I started with a
non-philosophical discipline
and ended up
talking about philosophy.
Well, I grew up
in Massachusetts (USA)
by the water,
and you always heard
interesting stories
about dolphins.
And as I’m trying to
figure out how to do
a chapter that somehow
involves biology,
I came up with the idea
of looking at
the most recent research
on dolphin intelligence
and the like,
and pairing that with
the philosophical question
of what it means
to be a person.
Among philosophers
the concept of personhood
is different from
what it is to be a human.
In ordinary parlance
we use “human” and
“person” interchangeably.
But among philosophers,
to be a person,
no matter what the species,
is to have traits
that we’ve always said
are unique to humans alone:
self awareness,
a sense of time,
a sense of personality,
emotions, individuality,
uniqueness, higher order
intellectual abilities
and the like.
And to be any being that
would have those abilities,
no matter what the species,
a philosopher would say,
“Wouldn’t that be
a non-human person?”
Over the years,
countless studies
on the behavior of dolphin
have shown that they
have many characteristics
in common with humans.
One of the
most fundamental traits
that you see in humans
and dolphins and chimps,
for example, as scientists
will talk about it,
is our ability to be aware
and have an inner world,
to be self aware.
Dolphins are
incredibly attentive, and
possess an innate tendency
to care for the well-being
and safety of other species.
For example,
in December 2008,
after his small boat
capsized in
Puerto Princesa Bay
in the Philippines,
a man was assisted
by some 30 dolphins
and two whales.
They gently nudged
the small Styrofoam board
he was floating on
toward shore.
Two other dolphins also
swam alongside the man
to accompany him
until he reached safety.
When you look at
the scientific research over
the last 30 and 40 years,
and you look at
the research of
probably more than
20 different scientists,
the variety of intellectual
and emotional abilities
that dolphins have
I would say qualify them
as being
non-human persons.
In many ways they are
remarkably similar to us.
Like humans, dolphins
are highly social beings
and love to play
by rubbing, petting
and swimming together
with their friends;
dolphins have even
been seen rubbing
one another’s pectoral fins
in a gesture similar
to the human handshake.
Dolphins are known
to be very talkative
and communicate to
other members of their pod
through whistles
and clicks.
Non-verbal communication
is also used.
For example,
to ask her baby
to stop doing something,
a mother will nod her head
up and down.
They are communicating
in some sophisticated way.
The clicks are
mainly echolocation.
It’s a way that
they scope out their world,
a sort of sonar.
They have whistles, they
also probably communicate
through touch, gesture.
There’s been
very impressive research
on the abilities
of some dolphins
to understand
human language, and
artificial human languages.
Their brains wouldn’t
be able to do that
unless the capacity were
already there to handle
symbolic representation
and communication
in some way.
When we return,
Dr. White will share
more of his fascinating
findings and insights
on the deep blue world
of dolphins.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
In this area in the Bahamas,
there's a community
of Bottlenose,
who come and go,
and they interact with
the Spotteds (dolphins).
There are instances
where the Bottlenose will
babysit for the Spotteds,
and maybe vice versa.
So there are mutual living
and cooperation
going on there.
Most importantly,
is that we as humans
have to give up the claim
that we're the only beings
on the planet who count,
that we get to set
all of the rules,
and that’s the first thing
that we have to do.
Welcome back to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants
as Dr. Thomas White,
author of the insightful book
“In Defense of Dolphins:
The New Moral Frontier,”
discusses his
recent findings
on the intriguing world
of dolphins.
Through firsthand
interactions with these
wonderful marine beings
in the Bahamas, Dr. White
became enthralled
by the uniqueness
of each dolphin.
It's a fascinating experience.
They have
this tremendous sense
of power
to their personalities.
Some are inquisitive,
some like to work,
some don't, some like
to swim with humans,
and some don't.
In the Bahamas
there are dolphins who
like to interact with humans,
there are ones that don't,
there are some
that like engage us in
some kind of socialization.
Others don't.
So it's like
with human beings,
you can sense
certain aspects of
what someone's
personality is like.
Of course, that's also true
with dogs and cats.
There are
individual differences;
there are personalities.
So, again there are
lots of things out there
that we've always thought
are unique to us
that tend to be
much more widely spread
in the world of nature.
One of the greatest
dolphin scientists I knew,
Ken Norris, who was
legendary in the field,
remarked to me one time
when we were
talking about dolphins,
that he said
that their personality
was just sweeter
than that of humans.
In his book
Dr. White explores the
philosophical implications
of dolphins' exceptional
cognitive abilities for
our relations with them,
and also describes
more evolved, ethical ways
for us to regard
these magnificent,
brilliant mammals.
Whether we say
a dolphin is a person
or a chimp is a person or
a gorilla or an elephant,
the underlying question
really is what kind of
treatment is appropriate
to that species
in order to allow
that species to flourish,
that is to have
the kind of life
that it is designed to have
and then get fundamental
pleasure and growth and
development through that.
The first thing
we have to do is
to recognize the rights
and the interests of
other beings on the planet
and recognize our duty
to respect that.
Not to say, our only duty
is to treat them in a way
that we consider
to be appropriate.
It's to respect the conditions
that we set down, by what
would be appropriate
to their species for
compassionate treatment.
It's more
that as we recognize
what it is that they need,
what are the conditions
under which
they need to live,
in order to develop fully.
Our job is then
to recognize that
and to leave them alone
in that regard,
which then means issues
relating to ending
(dolphin) slaughters, and
to stop regarding them
as property.
Dr. White believes
that humanity
can learn many lessons
from dolphins such as
how to live sustainably
as they have
successfully done so
for millions of years.
Simply, even in terms of
our own survivability,
the humans on the planet
have been around for only
two to three million years.
We've had
modern civilization
a few hundred (years)
and when you look at
our history, we continue
to make the planet
less habitable
for ourselves,
never mind everybody else
that we make it
less habitable for.
We really couldn't say
we've cracked the secret
or come up
with the formula for
the long-term survivability
of our own species.
Dolphins have been around
for a much longer period
of time.
The common ancestor
of all the whales
and dolphins,
we're talking about
50 to 60 million years
and the modern dolphin,
maybe 15 million years
I think.
Living in harmony
with nature on our
beautiful, shared planet,
these supremely serene,
intelligent beings of the sea
convey immense love
and tranquility to help
stabilize the environment.
Their soulful calls resonate
with the vibrations
of the ocean
and our own souls,
awakening our innate,
noble Selves
and encouraging us
toward higher levels
of consciousness.
There’s now greater
appreciation for the fact
that something
like consciousness
is going to be out there
in the world of nature,
in a variety
of different ways.
That evolution
or adaptation is going to
happen differently
in a number of
different species
and so there’s no reason
to expect that a trait
that we have, that we’re
going to be the only ones
who have that.
So there’s definitely been
a sense over time to see,
as I’ve been aware of
the scientific literature,
greater appreciation
of the fact that there
will be different degrees
of intelligence,
different degrees of
consciousness out there
than we would
have been saying before.
Our salute goes to
Dr. Thomas White
for his fruitful research
and eye-opening views,
which bring to light the
loving, altruistic nature
of our dolphin friends.
May the lives of these
beautiful co-inhabitants
of our planet continue to
bless our vast, blue oceans.
For more details
on Dr. Thomas White,
please visit:
“In Defense of Dolphins:
The New Moral Frontier”
is available
at the same website
Lovely viewers, thank you
for your company today
on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News.
May our hearts resonate
with everlasting love
and kindness.
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in North Africa, but
what about a “food desert?”
Food deserts are basically
urban environments
where the inhabitants
have greater access
to liquor stores and
to junk food than
they do to fresh fruits
and vegetables.
We highlighted several
organizations here
locally in Chicago (USA)
that we said are
the solution to
food deserts and that’s by
creating urban gardens
here in the city…
To learn more about
Conscious Living TV
and Soul of Green TV
and their eco-
and socially
minded programming,
please watch Part 2 of
“Bianca and
Michael Alexander:
Leading the Media
to a Conscious Planet”
Sunday, April 18
on Good People,
Good Works.