Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

4.5
I love that he was critical of methodology as I agree that it is very important.

Some of the animal studies I was familiar with and others were novel to me. A good mix is appreciated.

Frans de Waal is the head primate researcher at Emory National Primate Research Center, the world's most prestigious research institute (formerly known as Yerkes). He is famous for his work which is critical of attitudes of anthrocentrism or human-supremacism. In this work, he selects a number of commonly presented assertions about the uniqueness of humanity, and demonstrates the ways that such claims are almost always dramatically overstated, if not outright false. The work is less focused around explicitly answering the question of the title, and more a reasoned critique of human arrogance regarding the scientific method. De Waal presents example after example of famous research studies of the past which produced results that fundamentally shaped the way 19th and 20th century humans understood animals then shows the ways that such studies ultimately were debunked due to limitations in research design (almost always resulting from overconfidence in the human way, or lack of ability to leave the human perspective).

De Waal's book is an easy read for the non-scientifically literate public and helps give those of us outside of science a better understanding of what science can and sometimes cannot tell us. It is a very empathetic book, which encourages us to have more humility when we consider the untold billions of species whom we share the Earth with, who down to even the strangest species of wasp, may be capable of higher levels of cognition than we would have ever imagined otherwise.

Clearly an expert in his field but not an expert on engaging literary structure. This book proved a hard read through repetitive and poorly structured content.

Whew. I had no idea. I have been sitting up there, atop the animal hierarchy, where I believed humans justly reign supreme in the universe, looking down (benevolently, I hope) on all the other creatures not blessed with a person-sized brain, self-satisfied, and now, after reading this book, I find that I have been toppled from my position, and I lay here, dazed and a bit confused.

Who knew?

Frans de Waal takes a thorough look at cognition studies that have been done throughout time and across various animal species, and all the myths about animal intelligence that we humans have accumulated through the years are exploded after reading this book.

Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are? I'm not sure we are.

An intriguing premise and perfectly reasonable, with good anecdotes of real-world applications. So why re-hash all of the “old theories”? It would have been much more satisfying to hear more about where this could lead, and how it could benefit us (meaning humans and the animals we share the world with).

Dopo la rivoluzione scientifica di Konrad Lorenz che fece dell'etologia una scienza, ecco qui de Waal che tenta un altro passo da gigante proponendo una nuova scienza: io cognitivismo evoluzionista ossia un approccio totalmente nuovo allo studio del comportamento animale e umano togliendo quella “e” , mostrando che ad oggi, dopo svariati esperimenti scientifici, non si può più dare retta ai filosofi che sostengono che l'essere umano abbia un plus rispetto agli animali, qualcosa che da loro lo contraddistingue e che trascende le leggi dell'evoluzione o - come è stato detto - “l'evoluzione si è fermata al collo dell'uomo”. E allora la nostra mente si apre a una prospettiva e a una visione della vita e degli altri esseri viventi del tutto nuova ed eccitante. Assolutamente da non perdere.