Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Reviews / Votes

A lively, punchy and rigorous review of 20 years of academic studies of animals' mental lives, written by one of the most prominent thinkers in the field... It is the half-century-long failure of science and empathy that motivates de Waal's fascinating book... De Waal demolishes the pedestal on which we have placed humanity... [it is] an important corrective to human exceptionalism -- James McConachie * Sunday Times * If you are at all interested in what it is to be an animal, human or otherwise, you should read this book -- Matthew Cobb * Guardian * Compellingly recounted by De Waal, who has a long and distinguished career in animal psychology... This book makes plan [that] we can see plenty of ourselves in our animal cousins too -- Raphael Hogarth * The Times * So, are we 'smart enough to know how smart animals are'? The question will occur to you many times as you read Frans de Waal's remarkable distillations of science in this astonishingly broad-spectrum book. I guarantee one thing: readers come away a lot smarter. As this book shows, we are here on Planet Earth with plenty of intelligent company -- Carl Safina, author * Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel * Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? will completely change your perceptions of the abilities of animals. It is... a fascinating journey of discovery -- Temple Grandin, author * Animals in Translation * This is a remarkable book by a remarkable scientist. Drawing on a growing body of research including his own, de Waal shows that animals, from elephants and chimpanzees to the lowly invertebrates, are not only smarter than we thought, but also engaged in forms of thought we have only begun to understand -- Edward O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University A thoughtful, balanced argument... written simply enough for nonspecialists but with enough detail to engage academics who want a concise review of the field outside their own areas of expertise. The take-home message may be not only whether humans are smart enough to evaluate nonhuman intelligence, but also whether we are humble and open-minded enough to accept that humans may sometimes not be superior to the nonhumans with whom we share the world -- Irene Pepperberg, author * Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence-and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process * Frans de Waal's groundbreaking research has long challenged scientists, philosophers, and theologians to rethink the place of humans in the natural world, showing that we aren't the only species with strategic 'political' behavior, elements of empathy, a sense of justice, and high intelligence. Here he covers not only primates, but a much wider range of species, showing his unique ability to translate the latest findings into sparkling, accessible, provocative books for the thinking public -- Robert Sapolsky, author * Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers * Engaging and provocative... de Waal illuminates the latest ideas and thinking about animal minds and emotions... He challenges us to accept the ultimate findings of this research: Our mental skills are the product of evolution, and all animals from spiders to octopuses to ravens and apes are thinkers in their own ways. And he asks us perhaps the most daunting question of all: Are we really smart enough to understand the minds of other animals? -- Virginia Morell, author * Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel * You can't help but get a sense that de Waal has placed another nail in the coffin of behaviorism. In animal after animal, de Waal shows the depths of their intelligence and triumphantly affirms that, yes, we are smart enough to see it, and the clues have been there all along -- Gregory Berns, author * How Dogs Love Us * Frans de Waal brilliantly demonstrates through scientific evidence, inspiring stories, and common sense that we must fully appreciate the continuous evolutionary process that led to intelligence - understanding situations, reasoning, learning, emotional and empathic knowledge, communication, planning, creativity, and problem solving - and to other amazing cognitive skills that allow various species to best survive, each in their own way. A must for those who aspire to transcend the biases of both anthropocentrism and anthropodenial -- Matthieu Ricard, author * Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World * A thoroughly engaging, remarkably informative and deeply insightful book * Publishers Weekly * de Waal is persuasive in arguing that the difference between the cognition of the human and those of other animals is one of degree, not of kind, and the clarity of his writing makes for a highly readable book ... After this edifying book, a trip to the zoo may never be the same * Kirkus * This is what science writing should be, and so rarely is: confident but humble; rigorous but suffused with wonder. De Waal writes with the simplicity that comes only with profound understanding. he's a true scientist - free of the reductionist fundamentalism that suffocates so much modern science. The book is an exhilarating but genial journey through evolutionary aeons, across the species barrier, and into the surprisingly companionable worlds of non-human races -- Charles Foster, author of Being the Beast When a judge says that a young criminal behaved like an animal he means it as an insult. If he read Frans de Waal's splendid new book he would discover that in reality it as a compliment -- Desmond Morris De Waal draws on his own experience and a vast array of scientific papers to support his ideas. His book is rich and digressive... It is certainly a significant contribution to the debate. -- Philip Hoare * New Statesman * Engrossing and remarkable -- Brett Westwood * BBC Wildlife Magazine * Terrific... [de Waal] is a brilliant writer -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue * [This] guide to animal intelligence will help us adjust our human-centricity a little bit... De Waal sets out not only to explore the topic of animal intelligence [...] but also to investigate why we are so very resistant to accepting the fact that other species share some of our mental traits. In the process, he explores the history of such biases, as well as the research that has challenged them... Are We Smart Enough? is like the lunchtime lecture you might go to... story-driven and personable, so you feel the narrator is there with you, affably offering insights that expand your understanding -- Adrian Barnett * Literary Review * Admirable... [de Waal] offers intimate knowledge of the history of the field together with a vision of its prospects. He skilfully weaves together intellectual history, anecdote[s] about leading figures, accounts of empirical discoveries, philosophical critique and the occasional well-aimed and perfectly weighted slap. Combining wisdom, lightly-worn expertise and an undiminished capacity for wonder, de Waal is not afraid to let a shard of temper show now and again... His reflections over a long an distinguished career will both enlighten the general reader and discomfort those who deserve, in their presuppositions, to be much less comfortable... a remarkable book -- Ian Ground * TLS *