ABSTRACT
Moral agents are individuals who act in the moral sphere in such a way that they can be held morally responsible for their actions. Where different animals fit into the moral sphere may depend on their psychological properties. Objections to animals fitting somewhere in the moral sphere are typically based on their lack of some cognitive requirement, they aren't smart enough to have morality, or they only have simple emotions but lack the moral emotions. The issue then becomes the sort of capacity required to make the moral-looking behavior into truly moral behavior. As people learn more about animals, their lives free from human encroachment, their cognitive capacities, their emotions and their needs, the calibration method will be useful in order to help decide the place of animals in the moral sphere. The outcomes of such decisions depend greatly on the work of philosophers and psychologists who study moral psychology and the nature of normativity.
