Anyone proposing that animals thought and felt – from psychologist Wolfgang Köhler to Jane Goodall to de Waal himself – were ridiculed for engaging in uncritical anthropomorphism.Īs a theory, Evolutionary Cognition echoes Darwin’s view that similar outward abilities and tendencies among different species suggest they have similar cognitive and emotional lives. To answer the titular question of whether we are smart enough to recognize this, de Waal says, “Yes, but you’d never have guessed.” De Waal dares us to view animals through their own way of life, and in doing so we discover how much they share in what supposedly makes us humanįor more than a century, and until very recently, he explains, behaviourists and cognitive psychologists rejected “as naïve ‘folk’ nonsense” the idea that other animals possessed cognition, intention or emotion at all.
Taken together, they form a powerful argument against the old idea that other species lack a cognitively rich inner life. These accounts alone make the book worth reading. Crocodiles seem to use tools when, during the nesting season, they balance sticks on their snouts to attract herons seeking material for their nests. Humpback whales disseminate a once-rare hunting technique across a population of six hundred animals over the course of twenty-five years. The inspirational video starts out with Williams singing and dancing in the street, crooning, 'When Jesus say yes, nobody can say no.' Beyoncé then appears in an ethereal white dress and sings. In the wild, chimpanzees show up for a termite fishing session with a collection of five tools, each for a different purpose, some of them custom made. A chimpanzee watches from her enclosure as a researcher secretly hides candy in some bushes one evening the next morning she gestures, points, hoots and pants as the oblivious caretakers arrive, easily enlisting their help to find and bring it to her. Elephants not only recognize themselves in the mirror, but also take the opportunity to inspect the insides of their mouths. In experiments de Waal cites, New Caledonian crows not only make tools, but also use tools to retrieve other tools to retrieve more tools to get food. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. CHRISTIAN SONG LYRICS 'SAY YES'By Michelle Williams with Beyonc & Kelly Rowland.