![Amazon prime logo](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/marketing/prime/new_prime_logo_RGB_blue._CB426090081_.png)
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
-17% $14.95$14.95
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Save with Used - Acceptable
$9.99$9.99
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: 2nd Life Books
Learn more
1.27 mi | ASHBURN 20147
![Kindle app logo image](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/app/kindle-app-logo._CB668847749_.png)
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Reprint Edition
![iphone with kindle app](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/dp/nfcx/PersistentWidget-Ruby-Large._CB485955431_.png)
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Purchase options and add-ons
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.
32 illlustrations- ISBN-100393353664
- ISBN-13978-0393353662
- EditionReprint
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateApril 4, 2017
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions5.6 x 1 x 8.3 inches
- Print length352 pages
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Frequently bought together
![Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71W-U-8I0kL._AC_UL116_SR116,116_.jpg)
Similar items that may ship from close to you
- An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around UsPaperback34% offPrime Day Deal
- Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western AmazonPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Jul 22
- Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among ApesFrans de WaalPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Tuesday, Jul 23
- Beyond Words: What Animals Think and FeelPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Jul 22
- Inside Animal Hearts and Minds: Bears That Count, Goats That Surf, and Other True Stories of Animal Intelligence and EmotionHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Jul 22
- Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about OurselvesFrans de WaalPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Jul 22
Editorial Reviews
Review
― Nancy Szokan, Washington Post
"Astonishing…has the makings of a classic―and is one fascinating read."
― People
"Walks us through research revealing what a wide range of animal species are actually capable of…[I]t all deals a pretty fierce wallop to our sense of specialness."
― Jon Mooallem, New York Times Book Review
"A thoughtful and easy read, packed with information stemming from detailed empirical research, and one of de Waal’s most comparative works that goes well beyond the world of nonhuman primates with whom he’s most familiar."
― Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today
"A beautifully written and delightfully conceived popular science book, written by an eminent researcher who has dedicated his career to making the general public aware of just how smart animals are."
― Nicola Clayton, Science
"If you are at all interested in what it is to be an animal, human or otherwise, you should read this book."
― The Guardian
"This is a remarkable book by a remarkable scientist. Drawing on a growing body of research including his own, de Waal shows that animals, from elephants and chimpanzees to the lowly invertebrates, are not only smarter than we thought, but also engaged in forms of thought we have only begun to understand."
― Edward O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
"Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? will completely change your perceptions of the abilities of animals. This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery into the world of animal problem-solving."
― Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human
"So, are we ‘smart enough to know how smart animals are’? The question will occur to you many times as you read Frans de Waal’s remarkable distillations of science in this astonishingly broad-spectrum book. I guarantee one thing: readers come away a lot smarter. As this book shows, we are here on Planet Earth with plenty of intelligent company."
― Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (April 4, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393353664
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393353662
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.6 x 1 x 8.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #160,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #56 in Evolutionary Psychology (Books)
- #111 in Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuropsychology
- #432 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Frans De Waal](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/7dnt8m7uge0ioarfvbvlc14eu5._SY600_.jpg)
I am a Dutch/American biologist, born in 1948 in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. I have lived in the USA since 1981.
My passion is primate behavior, and the comparison between primate and human behavior. I pursue the first as a scientist and the second as the author of popular science books. For me, there is nothing more logical than to look at human society through the lens of animal behavior. I have a Ph. D. in biology and ethology (the study of animal behavior) from the University of Utrecht.
My first book, "Chimpanzee Politics" (1982), compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. The book was put on the reading list of congress in Washington. Ever since, I have drawn parallels between primate and human behavior, from aggression to morality and culture.
Gender differences are a logical subject for a primatologist since the gender debate always turns around. the interaction between nature and nurture. Despite attempts to separate gender from biology, as if it were purely a human construct, the reason we have a gender duality is that our species has two sexes to begin with. I agree that the sexual binary is a mere approximation (even at the biological level, it has exceptions and intermediates), but still, the way the sexes differ in other primates tells us something about ourselves.
My latest book "Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist" (Norton, 2022) compares sex differences in three closely related species: humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos. It tries to dispel the idea that only humans have genders and that only we have gender diversity. Other primates, too, adopt sex-typical behavior from watching others, hence have genders. They show the same array of gender expressions celebrated under the LGBTQ flag. My book pays attention to non-conforming individuals as well as homosexual behavior among the primates.
Since childhood, I have been an animal lover, and in fact -- even though my career has focused on primate behavior -- I am interested in all sorts of animals, including fish and birds, but also elephants and dolphins. My book on animal intelligence -- "Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?" (Norton, 2016) -- reflects this broader interest, as it covers a wide range of species.
My wife, Catherine, and I live in a forested area near Smoke Rise, in Georgia, a state we love. I retired from my position at Emory University in 2019, right before the Covid crisis. I am still involved in primate studies, mainly at sanctuaries for great apes in Africa, but mostly devote my time to reading, writing, and touring to give lectures.
I am a member of the National Academy of Sciences as well as of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, Time declared me one of The Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today.
My books have been translated into over twenty languages, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and received awards, such as:
• The 2020 PEN / E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award for "Mama’s Last Hug"
• The 1989 Los Angeles Times Book Award for "Peacemaking among Primates"
More on my background on the following website:
https://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/bonobo_atheist/author1.shtml
My public Facebook page with 750K followers announces upcoming lectures:
https://www.facebook.com/franspublic/
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book enjoyable, well-written, and easy to follow. They also appreciate the fascinating insights into the real intelligence of animal companions. Readers also say the content is fascinating, excellent, and helps them understand prejudice, arrogance, and infighting.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book fascinating, providing a new perspective on an old question. They also say it provides good information about animals, their abilities, and intellect. Readers also mention that it's enjoyable for any animal lover, with anecdotes from personal experiences and explanations.
"Reading this book was so refreshing as I am getting more and more disenchanted with science based on mechanistic views...." Read more
"...In summary, this was a very entertaining book. Professor De Waal succeeds in entertaining and educating the public on animal cognition...." Read more
"...The author has provided fascinating observations, examples, results of experiments, and definitions...." Read more
"This book is essential reading for anyone interested in biology, anthropology, animal behavior, psychology, evolution and the history of science...." Read more
Customers find the book clear, entertaining, and a quick read. They also say the writer is highly qualified and provides a great insight into his profession. Customers also say that the book does an excellent job of compiling the cross-species evidence and provides an overview of how we arrived at our current thinking.
"...3. Entertaining and insightful. The book is easy to follow. Professor de Waal is fair and even handed...." Read more
"...This book is engaging, well-written and a quick read...." Read more
"...book provides strong evidence for van de Waal’s argument and is accessible to read, although it could use some tightening in a few places...." Read more
"...The book may be a tad repetitive at times, but it is entertainingly written, and well worth reading." Read more
Readers find the book provides fascinating insights into the real intelligence of animal companions. They also say it's an excellent ego buster, with humor, empathy, and exploration.
"...Professor de Waal is fair and even handed. He is careful to not oversell nonhuman cognition while providing a mixture of stories, experiments and..." Read more
"...You will definitely come away from this book with a deep appreciation of the remarkable behaviors demonstrated by animals who for a long time have..." Read more
"The author makes a compelling case that many species are surprisingly intelligent and have emotions...." Read more
"...animals on their own terms, the more they have found high levels of cognitive abilities, tool making, social learning, memory, and other mental..." Read more
Customers find the book enjoyable.
"...Evolutionary Cognition.Positives:1. Engaging and well-written book that is accessible to the masses.2...." Read more
"...Alex, to his descriptions of studies on gorillas, this book is entertaining, engaging, and fascinating." Read more
"De Waal, as usual, delights, entertains and teaches effortlessly as he takes us on a tour of animal intelligence...." Read more
"...Do read this book if you love to learn, and in an entertaining, but in no way condescending fashion. I will definitely recommend this book to others!" Read more
Reviews with images
![Fran de Wall has done it again](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V192234675_.gif)
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
“Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?” is an insightful look at animal intelligence backed up by evidence from controlled experiments. Dutch/American biologist with a Ph.D. in zoology and ethology and author of Our Inner Ape and others, Frans de Waal, takes the reader on a journey of the sophistication of nonhuman minds. This entertaining 352-page book includes the following nine chapters: 1. Magic Wells, 2. A Tale of Two Schools, 3. Cognitive Ripples, 4. Talk to Me, 5. The Measure of all Things, 6. Social Skills, 7. Time Will Tell, 8. Of Mirrors and Jars, and 9. Evolutionary Cognition.
Positives:
1. Engaging and well-written book that is accessible to the masses.
2. A fascinating topic in the hands of a subject matter expert, nonhuman cognition.
3. Entertaining and insightful. The book is easy to follow. Professor de Waal is fair and even handed. He is careful to not oversell nonhuman cognition while providing a mixture of stories, experiments and observations to back his points. “I will pick and choose from among many discoveries, species, and scientists, so as to convey the excitement of the past twenty years.”
4. Includes many sketches that complement the excellent narrative.
5. Introduces and explains key new terms. “Umwelt stresses an organism’s self-centered, subjective world, which represents only a small tranche of all available worlds.”
6. Does a wonderful job of explaining the most important topic of this book, animal cognition. “No wonder Griffin became an early champion of animal cognition—a term considered an oxymoron until well into the 1980s—because what else is cognition but information processing? Cognition is the mental transformation of sensory input into knowledge about the environment and the flexible application of this knowledge.” “While the term cognition refers to the process of doing this, intelligence refers more to the ability to do it successfully.”
7. A look into experimental science. “The credo of experimental science remains that an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
8. One of the recurring themes of this wonderful book is the importance of conducting well-constructed experiments. “Their earlier poor performance had had more to do with the way they were tested than with their mental powers.” “The challenge is to find tests that fit an animal’s temperament, interests, anatomy, and sensory capacities.”
9. A fascinating look at the field of evolutionary cognition. “The field of evolutionary cognition requires us to consider every species in full.”
10. One of the most important topics covered is the notion of continuity. “It is far more logical to assume continuity in every domain, Griffin said, echoing Charles Darwin’s well-known observation that the mental difference between humans and other animals is one of degree rather than kind.”
11. Explains key differences between behaviorism and ethology. “The difference between behaviorism and ethology has always been one of human-controlled versus natural behavior. Behaviorists sought to dictate behavior by placing animals in barren environments in which they could do little else than what the experimenter wanted.”
12. The book provides interesting examples that includes animals beyond de Waal’s expertise of primates. “With animals such as chimpanzees, elephants, and crows, for which we have ample evidence of complex cognition, we really do not need to start at zero every time we are struck by seemingly smart behavior.”
13. Provocative questions. Do animals have culture? Find out.
14. Provides evidence for animal cognition. “A century ago Wolfgang Köhler set the stage for animal cognition research by demonstrating that apes can solve problems in their heads by means of a flash of insight, before enacting the solution.” “Apes do not just search for tools for specific occasions; they actually fabricate them.”
15. The pioneers of animal cognition. “Nadia Ladygina-Kohts was a pioneer in animal cognition, who studied not only primates but also parrots, such as this macaw. Working in Moscow at around the same time that Köhler conducted his research, she remains far less known.”
16. The amazing story of Ayumu. “Ayumu’s photographic memory allows him to quickly tap a series of numbers on a touchscreen in the right order, even though the numbers disappear in the blink of an eye. That humans cannot keep up with this young ape has upset some psychologists.”
17. An interesting look at social skills. “The cooperative pulling paradigm, as it is known, has been applied to monkeys, hyenas, parrots, rooks, elephants, and so on.” “In the end, we found proof in the pudding that chimpanzees are highly cooperative. They have no trouble whatsoever regulating and dampening strife for the sake of achieving shared outcomes.”
18. Do animals plan ahead? “This study was quite ingenious and included a few additional controls, leading the authors to conclude that jays recall what items they have put where and at what point in time.” “Lisala, a bonobo, carries a heavy rock on a long trek toward a place where she knows there are nuts. After collecting the nuts, she continues her trek to the only large slab of rock in the area, where she employs her rock as a hammer to crack the nuts. Picking up a tool so long in advance suggests planning.”
19. The intelligence of elephants. “In short, elephants make sophisticated distinctions regarding potential enemies to the point that they classify our own species based on language, age, and gender. How they do so is not entirely clear, but studies like these are beginning to scratch the surface of one of the most enigmatic minds on the planet.”
20. The three divided attitudes on animal cognition: slayers, skeptics, and the proponents.
21. Notes and bibliography included.
Negatives:
1. The scientific process needed to be explained in more detail and specifically how it relates to the study of primates. An appendix explaining de Waal’s overall scientific approach would have been helpful.
2. Lacks supplementary visual materials such as diagrams, charts and graphs. A chart depicting the different types of primates with key statistics as an example. Maps showing where the main subjects come from.
3. On the topic of neuroscience a little more depth was warranted. Once again, visual material would have complemented the narrative.
4. The format could have been enhanced to highlight the most noteworthy observations or facts.
In summary, this was a very entertaining book. Professor De Waal succeeds in entertaining and educating the public on animal cognition. His mastery of the topic is admirable and is careful to be grounded on the facts and not to oversell an idea. A lot of interesting insights don’t miss this one. I recommend it!
Further recommendations: “The Bonobo and the Atheist”, “Our Inner Ape”, “The Age of Empathy”, “Chimpanzee Politics” by the same author, “The Genius of Birds” by Jennifer Ackerman, “Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel” by Carl Safina, “The Soul of an Octopus” by Sy Montgomery, “Animal Wise” by Virginia Morell, “Zoobiquity” by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, “The Secret Lives of Bats” by Merlin Tuttle, and “Last Ape Standing” by Chip Walter.
This book is engaging, well-written and a quick read. The author has provided fascinating observations, examples, results of experiments, and definitions. De Wall, distinguished ethologist, professor and author, has bought a new understanding of animal intelligence and emotions to those of us who have not studied animals. It is astounding what has been learned through species appropriate evaluation, observation, and studies. I've only read the first few chapters, and am finding it difficult to put the book down. Luckily, I discovered this book by reading the Amazon reviews of other similar books. You can bet I'll be ordering more of De Wall's books!
Top reviews from other countries
![](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/239fc5d2-78d4-4479-a693-fa27619cee95._CR62,0,375,375_SX48_.jpg)
![](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)
The book largely focuses on primates, especially chimps, as this is author Franz de Waal's personal field of study, but also features the cognitive abilities of crows, elephants, octopuses, dogs, and rats, amongst others creatures.
Other interesting bits of note include how people commonly abuse the concept of anthropomorphism, and explains how the belief in the evolution of the human body but not the mind is in itself a form of Creationism.
This book is a must-read if you're interested in learning what we know about how animals think, feel, and experience the world.
![](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)
I hope this book will increase respect for our fellow species. Our destruction of habitats, and increasing meat consumption contribute to the threat to our planet's very survival, so treating animals better is ultimately to our own benefit (this is not the place to address the moral dimensions).
This book is very wll written,and I found the author's drawings charming. It is absorbing and eye-opening. I wish I could make everybody in the world to read it!