Our Inner Ape By Frans De Waal Summary

Author : Frans de Waal
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1594481962
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Our Inner Ape written by Frans de Waal and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-08-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visit the author's Web site at www.ourinnerape.com It’s no secret that humans and apes share a host of traits, from the tribal communities we form to our irrepressible curiosity. We have a common ancestor, scientists tell us, so it’s natural that we act alike. But not all of these parallels are so appealing: the chimpanzee, for example, can be as vicious and manipulative as any human. Yet there’s more to our shared primate heritage than just our violent streak. In Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal, one of the world’s great primatologists and a renowned expert on social behavior in apes, presents the provocative idea that our noblest qualities—generosity, kindness, altruism—are as much a part of our nature as are our baser instincts. After all, we share them with another primate: the lesser-known bonobo. As genetically similar to man as the chimpanzee, the bonobo has a temperament and a lifestyle vastly different from those of its genetic cousin. Where chimps are aggressive, territorial, and hierarchical, bonobos are gentle, loving, and erotic (sex for bonobos is as much about pleasure and social bonding as it is about reproduction). While the parallels between chimp brutality and human brutality are easy to see, de Waal suggests that the conciliatory bonobo is just as legitimate a model to study when we explore our primate heritage. He even connects humanity’s desire for fairness and its morality with primate behavior, offering a view of society that contrasts markedly with the caricature people have of Darwinian evolution. It’s plain that our finest qualities run deeper in our DNA than experts have previously thought. Frans de Waal has spent the last two decades studying our closest primate relations, and his observations of each species in Our Inner Ape encompass the spectrum of human behavior. This is an audacious book, an engrossing discourse that proposes thought-provoking and sometimes shocking connections among chimps, bonobos, and those most paradoxical of apes, human beings.

Author : QuickRead
Publisher : QuickRead.com
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Our Inner Ape by Frans de Waal (Summary) written by QuickRead and published by QuickRead.com. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you want more free book summaires like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. If you’ve ever wanted to unlock the moral, sexual, and evolutionary origins of your inner ape, leading primatologist Frans de Waal’s analysis can take you on a revolutionary journey. We’re all familiar with the evolutionary principle which posits that humans evolved from primates, but de Waal uses his expertise in primatology to explore this concept in greater detail. Arguing that humans are just as closely related to the gentle bonobo species as their aggressive counterparts, the Chimpanzees, de Waal compares and contrasts the two primates and argues that their lifestyles and sexual behavior has a great deal to teach us about the origins of human morality.

Author : Frans de Waal
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393635074
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves written by Frans de Waal and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author and primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama’s Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals. Mama’s Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal’s argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy. De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama’s life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don’t have a single organ that other animals don’t have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama’s Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.

Author : Frans B. M. Waal
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780801838330
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Chimpanzee Politics written by Frans B. M. Waal and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Precise but eminently readable and indeed exciting... This excellent book achieves the dual goal which eludes so many writers about animal behavior -- it will both fascinate the non-specialist and be seen as an important contribution to science." -- Times Literary Supplement

Author : Frans B. M. DE WAAL
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674033175
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Good Natured written by Frans B. M. DE WAAL and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To observe a dog's guilty look. to witness a gorilla's self-sacrifice for a wounded mate, to watch an elephant herd's communal effort on behalf of a stranded calf--to catch animals in certain acts is to wonder what moves them. Might there he a code of ethics in the animal kingdom? Must an animal be human to he humane? In this provocative book, a renowned scientist takes on those who have declared ethics uniquely human Making a compelling case for a morality grounded in biology, he shows how ethical behavior is as much a matter of evolution as any other trait, in humans and animals alike. World famous for his brilliant descriptions of Machiavellian power plays among chimpanzees-the nastier side of animal life--Frans de Waal here contends that animals have a nice side as well. Making his case through vivid anecdotes drawn from his work with apes and monkeys and holstered by the intriguing, voluminous data from his and others' ongoing research, de Waal shows us that many of the building blocks of morality are natural: they can he observed in other animals. Through his eyes, we see how not just primates but all kinds of animals, from marine mammals to dogs, respond to social rules, help each other, share food, resolve conflict to mutual satisfaction, even develop a crude sense of justice and fairness. Natural selection may be harsh, but it has produced highly successful species that survive through cooperation and mutual assistance. De Waal identifies this paradox as the key to an evolutionary account of morality, and demonstrates that human morality could never have developed without the foundation of fellow feeling our species shares with other animals. As his work makes clear, a morality grounded in biology leads to an entirely different conception of what it means to he human--and humane.

Author : Frans de Waal
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 1324007117
Total Pages : 515 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist written by Frans de Waal and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Every new book by Frans de Waal is a cause for excitement, and this one is no different. A breath of fresh air in the cramped debate about the differences between men and women. Fascinating, nuanced, and very timely.” —Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind: A Hopeful History In Different, world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal draws on decades of observation and studies of both human and animal behavior to argue that despite the linkage between gender and biological sex, biology does not automatically support the traditional gender roles in human societies. While humans and other primates do share some behavioral differences, biology offers no justification for existing gender inequalities. Using chimpanzees and bonobos to illustrate this point—two ape relatives that are genetically equally close to humans—de Waal challenges widely held beliefs about masculinity and femininity, and common assumptions about authority, leadership, cooperation, competition, filial bonds, and sexual behavior. Chimpanzees are male-dominated and violent, while bonobos are female-dominated and peaceful. In both species, political power needs to be distinguished from physical dominance. Power is not limited to the males, and both sexes show true leadership capacities. Different is a fresh and thought-provoking approach to the long-running debate about the balance between nature and nurture, and where sex and gender roles fit in. De Waal peppers his discussion with details from his own life—a Dutch childhood in a family of six boys, his marriage to a French woman with a different orientation toward gender, and decades of academic turf wars over outdated scientific theories that have proven hard to dislodge from public discourse. He discusses sexual orientation, gender identity, and the limitations of the gender binary, exceptions to which are also found in other primates. With humor, clarity, and compassion, Different seeks to broaden the conversation about human gender dynamics by promoting an inclusive model that embraces differences, rather than negating them.

Author : Frans de Waal
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307462528
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Age of Empathy written by Frans de Waal and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thought-provoking book, the acclaimed author of Our Inner Ape examines how empathy comes naturally to a great variety of animals, including humans. Are we our brothers' keepers? Do we have an instinct for compassion? Or are we, as is often assumed, only on earth to serve our own survival and interests? By studying social behaviors in animals, such as bonding, the herd instinct, the forming of trusting alliances, expressions of consolation, and conflict resolution, Frans de Waal demonstrates that animals–and humans–are "preprogrammed to reach out." He has found that chimpanzees care for mates that are wounded by leopards, elephants offer "reassuring rumbles" to youngsters in distress, and dolphins support sick companions near the water's surface to prevent them from drowning. From day one humans have innate sensitivities to faces, bodies, and voices; we've been designed to feel for one another. De Waal's theory runs counter to the assumption that humans are inherently selfish, which can be seen in the fields of politics, law, and finance. But he cites the public's outrage at the U.S. government's lack of empathy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a significant shift in perspective–one that helped Barack Obama become elected and ushered in what perhaps could become an Age of Empathy. Through a better understanding of empathy's survival value in evolution, de Waal suggests, we can work together toward a more just society based on a more generous and accurate view of human nature. Written in layman's prose with a wealth of anecdotes, wry humor, and incisive intelligence, The Age of Empathy is essential reading for our embattled times. "An important and timely message about the biological roots of human kindness."—Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape

Author : Frans de Waal
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393246191
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? written by Frans de Waal and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-04-25 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Henry Cabot Lodge (Jr.)
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393073777
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates written by Henry Cabot Lodge (Jr.) and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-03-25 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral behavior does not begin and end with religion but is in fact a product of evolution.

Author : Frans B. M. De Waal
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781422395134
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Our Inner Ape written by Frans B. M. De Waal and published by . This book was released on 2008-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores what our two closest relatives in the animal kingdom -- the chimpanzee & the bonobo -- can tell us about our own human nature. Here is a lively look at the most provocative aspects of human nature -- power, sex, violence, kindness & morality -- through our two closest cousins in the ape family. For nearly 20 years, Frans de Waal has worked with both the famously aggressive chimpanzee & the lesser-known, egalitarian, erotic, matriarchal bonobo, two species whose DNA is nearly identical to that of humans. He brings these apes to life in this book, revealing their personalities, relationships, power struggles & games. An engrossing narrative that explores what their behavior can teach us about ourselves & each other. Illustrations.