In discussing Mark Peters’s piece on anthropomorphism, Keith Tidman writes that “the hard-nosed realist in us knows anthropomorphism implies a level of agency that’s simply lacking in animals’’ (“Oh, there go those zany humans, anthropomorphizing again,’’ Dec. 10). According to Tidman, humans have a “nuanced parsing of morality’’ and a “contemplative weighing of alternative actions,’’ both lacking in animals.

Suppose those characteristics are lacking in humans, as, in certain cases, they certainly are. What is the word for that?

William Vaughan Jr.

Chebeague Island, Maine