Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

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.

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).

This book is mind-blowing. Anyone who has any interest in, or interaction with, animals should read this. I have always had a high opinion of animals' intelligence, but even I could not help but be amazed by the things I read in this book about the cognitive abilities of animals (in the least patronizing way possible). The most important thing I learned when I first read this book was that there is no hierarchy of intelligence as is commonly thought. When we say, for example, "dolphins are extremely intelligent" or "dogs are smarter than cats", what is the reference point? Humans. Because we are humans, we compare every other organism's intelligence to our own. This is natural. However, as de Waal points out, there are multiple intelligences, as many as every species, and comparing the intelligences of other organisms evolved within other ecological niches than ourselves to our own way of thinking is incorrect. The more correct thing to say would be "dolphin cognition is very similar to our own" or "dogs' cognition is more similar to ours than cats' is". We are not the smartest organism. We think an animal is "smart" when they think and act like we do instead of looking at how well their cognitive abilities allow them to live their own non-human lives in their own non-human environments. Every animal has the best intelligence for the environment and life history they evolved within. That is evolution's whole thing after all. I highly recommend reading this and then following it with de Waal's Mama's Last Hug.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I liked it! Interesting insights into the study of animal cognition, and de Waal does an excellent job of bringing the reader into the test lab (or forest) with just the right amount of technical and experimental detail to make you believe you are sitting opposite the animals as they prove their far-reaching abilities. Members of the animal kingdom provide a spectrum of cognitive abilities, and this book brings you into the highlights of modern behavioral research. The argument of this book is that human vs non-human is a terrible concept when analyzing cognition, and frankly, de Waal delivers an iron-clad case.

Personally, animal research isn't something that I typically think about, but thanks to reading this book, I understand the importance of continued funding particularly for how it helps us better understand ourselves.

If I'm going to nitpick, I wish the author wouldn't have delivered a straightforward answer to the title question in the intro. I was left with my enthusiasm deflated - why should I continue reading?

Definitely would recommend to anyone interested in animals or the scientific method in general.