Monkey Love

Score one for Edward O. Wilson and the commonsensical forces of sociobiology. Chimps and gorillas have sympathy and will sacrifice themselves for others:

Many philosophers find it hard to think of animals as moral beings, and indeed Dr. de Waal does not contend that even chimpanzees possess morality. But he argues that human morality would be impossible without certain emotional building blocks that are clearly at work in chimp and monkey societies.

[…]

“Sympathy is the raw material out of which a more complicated set of ethics may get fashioned,” he said. “In the actual world, we are confronted with different people who might be targets of our sympathy. And the business of ethics is deciding who to help and why and when.”

Remember that the next time you don't return Coco's calls.