【１】なぜ人を殺してはいけないのか。僕の考えを簡単に言うと、こうなります。人は自分を人間だと思っています。なぜ人間だと思っているかと言うと、自分を知っている他人が自分をそのように見て、そのように承認してくれていると確信しているからです。【２】つまり、これはへーゲルの説ですが、個人の自己の意識、オレはこういう人間だ、というアイデンティティの意識には、「他者の承認」ということが条件として組み込まれています。そして、人間だという意識は、このアイデンティティの一番の下部構造をなしているのです。
　【３】ところで、人間というのは、どんなことがあっても人を殺すべきでない、と僕達は思っています。何が起こるかわからないし、そうなれば自分がどうなるかわからない。殺人鬼(き）が迫ってきて、相手がスキを見せたら、僕でも正当防衛のためにこの殺人鬼(き）を刺すかも知れません。【４】でも、とにかく、平常心では何があっても人は殺しちゃいけないと思っている。そのようにして、僕の人間意識は成立しています。
　ところで、その僕が、自覚してたとえば自分の都合で、人を殺したとします。【５】すると、きっと他人は僕を人間の規矩を外れた存在と見るだろう、という予期が僕には訪れます。むろん、本当のところはわかりませんよ。誰もそんな僕に関心を持たないかも知れません。【６】でも、他人のことは結局誰にもわからないのですから、大事なのは、どう他人が思うか、ではなく、どう他人が思うと僕が思うか、ということです。それが他人の像がとりあえず僕の自己の意識に持つ意味にほかなりません。【７】僕には、きっと他人に人間と見られないだろう、という確信が生じる。すると、どうなるか。僕の中で、自分が人間であるという意識、アイデンティティが揺らぎます。つまり人を殺すと、その結果として、僕が自分で自分は人間だと思っている、その確信が揺らぎ、壊れてしまうのです。
　【８】むろん、何が起こるかわかりませんから、僕だって人を殺すことがないとは言えません。日本で最大の宗教家の一人である親鸞∵は、「心のよくて人を殺さずにあらず」と言っていますね。悪いから人を殺すのでもないし、人間がよいから人を殺さないのでもない。【９】どんな心の清い人間でも、ある状況の中ではつい人を殺してしまうということもあるし、どんなに人を殺そうとしても、状況によっては殺せないということもある。人を殺す、殺さないは、その人とその人の置かれた状況の関係から生じると考えたほうがいい、と言うのです。【０】
　ですが、そのことは、だから人を殺しても人は元通りに回復されるということではないのですから、人を殺してしまう場合には、その人の中で、一度壊れた「人間」がどのようにどこまで再修復されるか、というドラマが生じることになります。
　たとえば、ドストエフスキーの『罪と罰』はそのようなことを描いた小説と言えるでしょう。これは、頭脳明断な青年が、誰からも疎まれているような金貸しの婆さんを、人類的な理想実現のため殺していけない理由はない、という理論を実行するため、斧で殺す、という小説です。竹田青嗣（せいじ）があるところでこの小説に触れ、面白い個所を引いているんですが、老婆を斧で殺した後その青年ラスコーリニコフに変な感覚が生まれます。彼はその後世界で一番愛している母と妹と会うのですが、話をしていても、何か落ち着かない。「その話は後でゆっくりしましょうよ！」と母との話を打ち切るんだけれども、その時、絶対に、そんな時はもう二度と来ないだろう、という感覚が彼にやって来るのです。
　なぜ人を殺したらいけないのか。そうすると、自分で自分を人間社会の一員だと思えなくなってしまう、人間としてのアイデンティティを失う、とさっきは言いましたが、それってどういうことなのか。自分の中で、何か大切なものが壊れる。人間としてのアイデンティティを失うとは、誰とも心を開いては話せなくなる、ということです。だからやはり、人を殺すのは、自分にとってまず、よくない、そういう理由があると思うんです。

（加藤典洋『理解することへの抵抗』）

The greatest obstacle in science to investigating animal behavior has been a strong desire to avoid anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism means the assigning of human characteristics -- thought, feeling, consciousness, and motivation -- to the non-human. When people claim that the weather is trying to ruin their picnic or that a tree is their friend, they are anthropomorphizing. Few believe that the weather is being unkind to them, but anthropomorphic ideas about animals are held more widely. Outside scientific circles, it is common to speak of the thoughts and feelings of pets and of wild animals. Yet many scientists regard even the idea that animals feel pain as the worst sort of anthropomorphic error.
Science considers anthropomorphism toward animals a grave mistake, even a sin. It is common in science to speak of "committing" anthropomorphism. The term originally was religious, referring to the assigning of human form or characteristics to God. In an article on anthropomorphism in the 1908 Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, the author writes: "The tendency to regard objects as persons -- whether objects of sense or objects of thought -- which is found in animals and children as well as in savages, is the origin of anthropomorphism." Men, the idea goes, create gods in their own image. Thus a German philosopher once remarked that God is nothing but our projection, on a heavenly screen, of the essence of man. In science, assigning human characteristics to animals is a violation of principle. Just as humans could not be like God, now animals cannot be like humans.
To accuse a scientist of anthropomorphism is to make a severe criticism of unreliability. It is regarded as a species-confusion, a forgetting of the line between subject and object. To assign thoughts or feeling to a creature known incapable of them, would, indeed, be a problem. But to give to an animal emotions such as joy or sorrow is only anthropomorphic error if one knows that animals cannot feel such emotions. Many scientists have made this decision, but not on the basis of evidence. The situation is not so much that emotion is denied but that it is regarded as too dangerous to be part of the scientific discussion. As a result, no one but the most noted scientists would risk their reputations in writing about this area. Thus many scientists may actually believe that animals have emotions, but be unwilling not only to say that they believe it, but unwilling to study it or encourage their students to investigate it. They may also attack other scientists who try to use the language of emotion. Non-scientists who seek to retain scientific accuracy must act carefully.
Against this scientific orthodoxy, a British biologist has argued that to imagine oneself into the life of another animal is both scientifically justifiable and productive of knowledge. He introduced one of the most extraordinary accounts of a deep and emotional tie between a human being and a free-living lion as follows:

When common people interpret an animal's gestures or postures with the aid of human emotional terms -- anger or curiosity, affection or jealousy -- the strict Behaviourist accuses them of anthropomorphism, of seeing a human mind at work within the animal's skin. This is not necessarily so. The true student of animal life must be evolution-minded. After all, he is a mammal. To give the fullest possible interpretation of behaviour he must use a language that will apply to his fellow-mammals as well as to his fellow-men. And such a language must employ subjective as well as objective words -- fear as well as impulse to escape danger, curiosity as well as an urge to gain knowledge.

Most people who work closely with animals, such as animal trainers, take it as a matter of fact that animals have emotions. Accounts by those who work with elephants, for example, make it clear that one ignores an elephant's "mood" at one's peril. A British philosopher puts it well:

Obviously those elephant trainers may have many beliefs about the elephants which are false because they are anthropomorphic. But if they were doing this about the basic everyday feelings -- about whether their elephant is pleased, annoyed, frightened, excited, tired, suspicious or angry -- they would not only be out of business, they would often simply be dead.

The real problem underlying many of the criticisms of anthropomorphism is actually anthropocentrism. Placing humans at the center of all interpretation, observation, and concern, and powerful men at the center of that, has led to some of the worst errors in science. Anthropocentrism treats animals as lower forms of people and denies what they really are. It reflects a passionate wish to separate ourselves from animals, to make animals other, presumably in order to maintain the human at the top of the evolutionary scale and of the food chain. The idea that animals are wholly other from humans, despite our common roots, is more irrational than the idea that they are like US.
Idealizing animals is another kind of anthropocentrism, although not nearly as frequent as treating them as if they were lower or evil creatures. The belief that animals have all the virtues which humans wish to have and none of our faults, is anthropocentric, because at the center of this kind of thinking, there is a strong mistaken idea about the wicked ways of humans, which emphasizes contrasts with humans. In this sentimental view the natural world is a place without war and murder, and animals never lie, cheat, or steal. This view is not confirmed by reality. The act of deceiving has been observed in animals from elephants to foxes. Ants take slaves. Chimpanzees may attack other bands of chimpanzees, without any outside threats and with deadly intent. Male lions, when they join a group, often kill young ones who were fathered by other lions.
Humans have long recognized that animals have the potential to connect emotionally with humans. One of the oldest and most popular Indian tales is about the life-and-death bond between a Brahmin and a mongoose.
Once a Brahmin lived in a village with his wife, who one day gave birth to a son. The Brahmin, though poor, looked upon his son as a great treasure. After she had given birth to the child, the Brahmin's wife went to the river to bathe. The Brahmin remained in the house, taking care of his infant son. Meanwhile a maid came to call the Brahmin to the palace to perform an important religious ceremony. To guard the child, he left a mongoose, which he had raised in his house since it' was born. As soon as the Brahmin left, a snake suddenly crawled toward the child. The mongoose, seeing the snake, killed it out of love for his master. A few hours later, the mongoose saw in the distance the Brahmin returning. Happy to see him, the mongoose, stained with the blood of the snake, ran toward him. But when the Brahmin saw the blood, he thought, "Surely he has killed my little boy," and in anger he killed the mongoose with a stone. When he went into the house he saw the snake killed by the mongoose and his boy alive and safe. He felt a deep inner sorrow. When his wife returned and learned what had happened, she reproached him, saying, "Why did you not think before killing this mongoose which had been your friend?"
We cannot know whether the events really happened. The story is not so highly improbable. Mongooses are often kept as pets in India, and they do in fact kill snakes, including cobras and other highly poisonous species. But whether or not based on fact, such accounts catch the imagination in many different cultures: versions of this story are found in Mongolian, Arabic, Syriac, German, English, and other languages. They clearly show a sense of animal loyalty and clear judgment, of human pride and guilt, an awareness of the weakness of human judgment. Can we be trusted to honor the deep bond that a mongoose can form with us? This folktale at least would speak better for animals than for humans.

species （生物の）種
Behaviourist 行動主義者
evolution 進化
mammal 哺乳動物
Brahmin バラモン、僧侶（インドの最高位のカースト）
mongoose マングース