Chapter 6: Monkey Love
Harry Harlow's Primates
Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
Summary: Slater discusses the life and experiments of Harry Harlow. Her main topic is the experiments involving primates and the effects they had in the psychology field. According to Slater, Harlow was the first scientist who would make experiments about love (attachment, proximity, etc. were the words other scientists preferred). Harlow is described as someone cold, since his experiments could be seen as crude; however, his son describes him as someone who loved his family very much. The idea of animal cruelty is discussed, bringing the question of giving value or preference of human lives of animal lives.
Discussion: This chapter makes me reflect about the value that I give to animals' lives. When we were discussing the experiments done by Milgram, my position was that even though they provided useful information and advances in psychology, they were still wrong and unethical. It is wrong to play with people's feelings and mind sanity, much more their own physical health. However, when the ethical question about animal experiments was raised, my opinions and views were suddenly confused. If the life of a loved one could be saved by research done with animal testing, then I am for it. But it still makes me feel bad about myself, animals are also living things, and if we, humans, are so similar to primates, why are their lives values less? It is complicated!
No comments:
Post a Comment