Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Hardcover

De Waal, Frans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393246183 ISBN 13: 9780393246186

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016

Synopsis

A New York Times Bestseller

From world-renowned biologist and primatologist Frans de Waal, a groundbreaking work on animal intelligence destined to become a classic.

What separates your mind from an animal’s? Maybe you think it’s your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future―all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the planet’s preeminent species. But in recent decades, these claims have eroded, or even been disproven outright, by a revolution in the study of animal cognition. Take the way octopuses use coconut shells as tools; elephants that classify humans by age, gender, and language; or Ayumu, the young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame. Based on research involving crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, whales, and of course chimpanzees and bonobos, Frans de Waal explores both the scope and the depth of animal intelligence. He offers a firsthand account of how science has stood traditional behaviorism on its head by revealing how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long.

People often assume a cognitive ladder, from lower to higher forms, with our own intelligence at the top. But what if it is more like a bush, with cognition taking different forms that are often incomparable to ours? Would you presume yourself dumber than a squirrel because you’re less adept at recalling the locations of hundreds of buried acorns? Or would you judge your perception of your surroundings as more sophisticated than that of a echolocating bat? De Waal reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed. De Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal―and human―intelligence.

32 illlustrations

About this title

About the Author:

Frans de Waal has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. The author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, among many other works, he is the C. H. Candler Professor in Emory University’s Psychology Department and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Review:

“A good book. Read it instead of watching TV or playing video games. The whole world will be better as a result.”
- Maria Rodale, Daily Beast

“When I was growing up, aspiring naturalists or behavioral scientists would be given a copy of Konrad Lorenz’s zoological investigation King Solomon’s Ring to inspire them. With its wide-ranging and thought-provoking content, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? is an appropriate 21st-century replacement. If you are at all interested in what it is to be an animal, human or otherwise, you should read this book.”
- Matthew Cobb, The Guardian

“An entertaining, convincing case for assessing each species’s intelligence on its own terms....not only full of information and thought-provoking, it’s also a lot of fun to read.”
- Nancy Szokan, The Washington Post

“Astonishing...has the makings of a classic--and one fantastic read.”
- People

“A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds.”
- Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic

“A thoughtful and easy read, packed with information stemming from detailed empirical research, and one of de Waal's most comparative works that goes well beyond the world of nonhuman primates with whom he's most familiar.”
- Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today

“Engaging and informative.”
- The New York Times

“A beautifully written and delightfully conceived popular science book, written by an eminent researcher who has dedicated his career to making the general public aware of just how smart animals are.”
- Nicola Clayton, Science

“Walks us through research revealing what a ride range of animal species are actually capable of....it all deals a pretty fierce wallop to our sense of specialness.”
- Jon Mooallem, New York Times Book Review

“A fascinating history of the study of animal behavior and cognition.”
- Bark

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0393246183
• ISBN 13: 9780393246186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352