Abstract

This article argues that animals such as elephants might be a moral subject. That is, there are no logical or conceptual obstacles to thinking of Grace as motivated by moral considerations — specifically by emotions that have identifiable moral content. Grace’s actual motivations, of course, an empirical matter, and I take no stand on this. I defend the possibility claim: it is possible for animals to be motivated by emotional states such as compassion, sympathy, and toleration, and also by negative counterparts such as jealousy, malice, and spite. These are emotions that have moral content — morally-laden emotions — and acting on the basis of such emotions is sufficient for moral action. 

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