Biology Newsfeed

[Book Review] Animal acumen

ScienceNOW - Fetched: April 28th, 2016, 5:00pm UTC

Ever since the seminal writings of Charles Darwin, it has been well established that minds, like bodies, have evolved through the processes of natural and sexual selection. As a consequence, Darwin himself once argued that any difference between human and nonhuman animals "is one of degree, not kind." In Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, primatologist Frans de Waal explores whether our mode of investigating animal cognition is inherently biased against manifestations of intelligence that are decidedly non-humanlike. Reviewer Nicola Clayton praises the book as "inspiring," while acknowledging that its provocative premise will likely inflame skeptics. Author: Nicola Clayton

Read more

Return to the Newsfeed