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Connecting Animal Cognition and Emotion with Ethical Reasoning in the Classroom

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Animals in Environmental Education

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Education and the Environment ((PSEE))

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Abstract

We developed an interdisciplinary course connecting the science of animal cognition and emotion with ethical reasoning for the general education curriculum at Roanoke College. The course engages students in considering familiar animals, their pets, first, followed by a broader phylogenetic range of species. Students learn about cultural views of animals and scientific evidence of high-level animal cognition and emotion. We ask students to analyze ways in which these culturally based views and scientific findings should impact our ethical reasoning about animals. In our surveys of students (n = 89) in six sections of the course, taught over three years, students reported that they valued the interdisciplinary approach of the course and that their knowledge of cognitive abilities of animals increased.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use the term “animal” rather than “non-human animal” throughout the chapter as a means of signifying non-human animal or creature that is “other than human” for shorthand convenience. We recognize that applying the term animal to creatures that are “other than human” privileges the human while failing to acknowledge that humans are animals.

  2. 2.

    Paul Shepard introduced the “Pleistocene Paradigm” to deep ecology, positing that humans depend on contact with nature and animals in order to develop past an adolescent state and therefore many modern humans in post-agricultural society are trapped in infantilism. He was a Professor of V.S. Banschbach’s at the Claremont Colleges.

  3. 3.

    And Bekoff (2007) prompts us to consider other reasons why the scientific study of animal emotions has progressed so slowly: namely the threat to use of animals in research, particularly animals kept in laboratories, but in our practice in ethological study, we learn what the methodological limitations to progress are.

  4. 4.

    Roanoke College IRB Approval #16115.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Studies Department, Roanoke College, Salem, VA, USA

    Valerie S. Banschbach

  2. Religion and Philosophy Department, Roanoke College, Salem, VA, USA

    Marwood Larson-Harris

Authors
  1. Valerie S. Banschbach
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  2. Marwood Larson-Harris
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valerie S. Banschbach .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Liberal Studies Department, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, USA

    Teresa Lloro-Bidart

  2. Environmental Studies Department, Roanoke College, Salem, VA, USA

    Valerie S. Banschbach

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Banschbach, V.S., Larson-Harris, M. (2019). Connecting Animal Cognition and Emotion with Ethical Reasoning in the Classroom. In: Lloro-Bidart, T., Banschbach, V.S. (eds) Animals in Environmental Education. Palgrave Studies in Education and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98479-7_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98479-7_11

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98478-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98479-7

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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