A word now against Kant as a moralist
If a rat sees another rat drowning, for example, it will forgo a chunk of chocolate to save its imperiled friend. […]
Scientists at the University of Chicago […] found that a white rat raised among only white rats will do nothing to save a black rat from a trap. Rats, like humans, can be biased in how they act on, or don’t act on, their empathy.
In a variant of the experiment, a white rat raised among only black rats would save a black rat from a trap — but would fail to save other white rats.
And a white rat raised among black and white rats rescued rats of both colors. The researchers found that it is not the rat’s color that determines which type of rat it will show empathy for, but the social context in which it was raised.
related { when given a choice, do people avoid empathy? And if so, why? }
linocut on transfer paper { Christian Waller, The spirit of light, 1932 }
