
Purchase
Columbia University Press
May 2016
On Sale: May 17, 2016
360 pages ISBN: 0231178328 EAN: 9780231178327 Kindle: B01GBUWKNM Hardcover / e-Book
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Philosphy | Non-Fiction Pet-Lover | Non-Fiction
Animals fall in love, establish rules for fair play,
exchange valued goods and services, hold “funerals” for
fallen comrades, deploy sex as a weapon, and communicate
with one another using rich vocabularies. Animals also get
jealous and violent or greedy and callous and develop
irrational phobias and prejudices, just like us. Monkeys
address inequality, wolves miss each other, elephants grieve
for their dead, and prairie dogs name the humans they
encounter. Human and animal behavior is not as different as
once believed. In Not So Different, the biologist Nathan H. Lents argues
that the same evolutionary forces of cooperation and
competition have shaped both humans and animals. Identical
emotional and instinctual drives govern our actions. By
acknowledging this shared programming, the human experience
no longer seems unique, but in that loss we gain a fuller
understanding of such phenomena as sibling rivalry and the
biological basis of grief, helping us lead more grounded,
moral lives among animals, our closest kin. Through a mix of
colorful reporting and rigorous scientific research, Lents
describes the exciting strides scientists have made in
decoding animal behavior and bringing the evolutionary paths
of humans and animals closer together. He marshals evidence
from psychology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science,
anthropology, and ethology to further advance this work and
to drive home the truth that we are distinguished from
animals only in degree, not in kind.
No awards found for this book.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|