Reviews
Insightful and fascinating....de Waal fans and general readers interested in the field of animal cognition will be delighted., 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., Amazing.... The clarity of [De Waal's] writing makes for a highly readable book.... a trip to the zoo may never be the same., 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., 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., 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., If you are at all interested in what it is to be an animal, human or otherwise, you should read this book., 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., 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., Thoroughly engaging, remarkably informative, and deeply insightful.... de Waal teaches readers as much about humankind as he does about our nonhuman relatives., Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? will completely change your perceptions of the abilities of animals. This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery into the world of animal problem-solving., Walks us through research revealing what a wide range of animal species are actually capable of...[I]t all deals a pretty fierce wallop to our sense of specialness.
Synopsis
Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition--in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos--to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal--and human--intelligence., A New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." --Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic, A New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." --Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition--in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos--to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal--and human--intelligence.
