Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
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Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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Frans de Waal
About this listen
From world-renowned biologist and primatologist Frans de Waal comes this 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 been eroded - or even disproved 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, often incomparable forms? 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 an 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.
©2016 Frans de Waal (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.What listeners say about Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- regan
- 05-03-2017
Fantastic overview and insight
I'm a scientist and I work in the field of behaviour. Because of this I knew much of the material and people mentioned by de waal. However it was still a fantastic journey with great history, current and future research analysis. I would recommend this as required reading before entering the field of animal behaviour to any scientist, and that it is available for anyone to listen to is fantastic. Want to know the bleeding edge of animal behaviour alongside how this shapes our view of the world and ethics then this is the book for you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 26-07-2022
Great Listen
This is a great book. Super easy listening, very well written, highly informative. I would recommend this book to everyone.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Deborah Hoad
- 17-07-2017
Excellent
This book is interesting, entertaining and at times deeply moving. Fascinating to understand the extent to which what we think of as human abilities and characteristics are present in other animals. It made think a lot about what this indicates about human evolution and evolution in general.
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- Adam
- 08-12-2022
Incredible insight!!
A very good audibook. Audio is clear and the speaker is fantastic. The content will change how you see animals and ourselves.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amy Schumacher
- 10-06-2021
No Regrets Buying This Book
Informative, easily digestible concepts, pleasant narrator, overall fantastic. You will see animals in a different light after listening to this.
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- Dominic
- 18-05-2018
Engaging introduction to evolutionary cognition.
A detailed, fascinating, and engaging introduction to evolutionary cognition.
This book will satisfy those interested in the science and history of the field, while also offering many interesting anecdotes.
Highly recommended for anyone that enjoys learning about animal behaviour and intelligence.
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- Lea Hullett
- 10-12-2021
Enlightening
this book shoud be compulsory reading in schools. I will listen again as there is a lot to take in, but humans need to change the way we view the cognitive function of animals other than ourselves.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-08-2022
A real eye opener
An excellent, thought provoking and often funny account of what we know about how other animals think and why past attempts to assess animal cognition have often been misleading. We have more in common with the other animals than we realise
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- Trish Kroll
- 24-02-2023
I recommend this book
Really got absorbed in this book and loved the reader. I highly recommend it to others who work with animals as I do.
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