Through field observations and laboratory experimentation, biologists have shown that nonhuman primates evaluate fairness in terms similar to humans, and that rats manifest humanlike reciprocity in their social arrangements. Based on this evidence, researchers have made persuasive arguments that nonhuman animals are ethical beings.

Might some predilections of nonhuman species be more ethically advanced than our own? Might their lifeways reveal domains in which humans have never even contemplated the need for principled behavior?

Until very recently in geological time, hominids were quite limited in their habitat; we’re imperfectly evolved to manage the planet we now dominate, as current planetary conditions make readily apparent. Other species have abundant knowledge and experience that we lack. They offer a plethora of ways of being that we’d be foolish to neglect.

More-than-human ethical principles have the potential to be transformational. They can inspire greater goodness in people and align values across taxa for the greater good of all on a local and planetary level.

Since 2023, University of Arizona research associate Jonathon Keats has led community workshops exploring lessons in righteousness learned from nonhuman beings, providing space for creative expression of the more-than-humane. Workshop participants in cities and towns around the world evaluate the lifeways of animals, plants, and fungi they know personally, deriving guidance that might be applied to the human domain. Taking inspiration from historical sources including medieval bestiaries, each participant then narrates what one of the creatures has to teach in a small hand-crafted book. Do you want to include what the workshops are called here?

The books are collected in the Library of the More-Than-Humane, a physical and digital archive administered by the University of Arizona. Through exhibitions and a website, the public can learn from flora and fauna globally, and contribute books of their own making. The library supports unstructured, process-based learning from nonhuman teachers, and also serves as a critical resource for research on ethics, political science, and new legal models to reflect and protect the values of nature.