The ability to reason is often seen as a distinctively human trait, distinguishing us from other animals. It may (or may not) be uniquely human, but another quality seems to be, and that is our moral sense. We can argue about whether a crow’s ability to solve some puzzles as well, or often better, than some human beings constitutes a form of reason, but nobody expects a crow or a cat to stop doing something it wants to out of a sense that it is “wrong” to do so.
As far as I know, a moral sense is unique to human beings, and one of the foundations of our moral sense is empathy for other sentient beings. Empathy is not the sole source of moral behavior, but it is an important pillar of support for it. What makes a sociopath a sociopath is the absence of empathy–which is sharing the feelings of others. It’s why we wince when we see somebody hurt badly or…
