Are Animals Caring by Nature?

  You’ve probably seen some of the videos currently circulating on social media that show moving scenes of animals demonstrating an altruistic attitude. For example, there’s a gorilla in a zoo who saved a child who accidentally fell. Then there’s the duck sheltering a small dog under its wings from the cold. This leads to the question: are animals caring by nature? Those on the more positivist side of science find this question to be absurd. They wield the famous theory of biological egoism and are convinced that competition and individualism are the axes of natural selection. However, some less…