But I'm also interested in what distinguishes us from animals with regard to moral behaviour.
I maintain that they don't have any, and that morality is an essentially human characteristic

I suspect Steve is right that at least some aspects of morality have an evolutionary basis and you would therefore expect to find a morality on other species, though I thought his actual examples rather too anthropomorphic, and the way he used quotations the whole time suggests he had that concern as well. I also did not think his examples gave enough weight to choice. Nevertheless, as I say I broadly agreed.

There are formal definitions of morality we could bring in, but rather than do that, here are some things I think are characteristic.

* It must involve a choice of behaviours, both of which could occur. There is no point on having a "Thou shalt not kill" rule unless both killing and not-killing are options to choose between.

* Some implicit or explicit understanding has arisen that 'the right thing to do' is not the thing that most directly benefits the individual. (It is possible, or even probable, that in the long term the other behaviour is more beneficial to the individual via a rather nebulous 'group support' or similar.

* The response to the transgression involves other members of the group not just the two most immediately involved.


If you agree that those are key characteristics, then we see them quite widely in the animal kingdom, particularly around rules for sharing food.