The Age of Empathy
Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- £5.49
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
'Kindness and co-operation have played a crucial role in raising humans to the top of the evolutionary tree ... We have thrived on the milk of human kindness.' Observer
BY THE AUTHOR OF ARE WE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW SMART ANIMALS ARE?
'There is a widely-held assumption that humans are hard-wired for relentless and ruthless competition ... Frans de Waal sees nature differently - as a biological legacy in which empathy, not mere self-interest, is shared by humans, bonobos and animals.' Ben Macintyre, The Times
Empathy holds us together. That we are hardwired to be altruistic is the result of thousands of years of evolutionary biology which has kept society from slipping into anarchy. But we are not alone: primates, elephants, even rodents are empathetic creatures too.
Social behaviours such as the herding instinct, bonding rituals, expressions of consolation and even conflict resolution demonstrate that animals are designed to feel for each other. From chimpanzees caring for mates that have been wounded by leopards, elephants reassuring youngsters in distress and dolphins preventing sick companions from drowning, with a wealth of anecdotes, scientific observations, wry humour and incisive intelligence, The Age of Empathy is essential reading for all who believe in the power of our connections to each other.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
De Waal (Chimpanzee Politics), a renowned primatologist, culls an astounding volume of research that deflates the human assumption that animals lack the characteristics often referred to as "humane." He cites recent animal behavior studies that challenge the "primacy of human logic" and put animals on a closer behavioral footing with humans. Based on the studies of mammals, from primates to mice, de Waal proposes that empathy is an instinctual behavior exhibited by both lab rats and elephants. But de Waal's aim isn't merely to show that apes are transactional creatures with a basic understanding of reciprocity but to reveal that the idea that humans are naturally calculating, competitive and violent is grounded in a falsehood willfully and selfishly perpetuated. Throughout the book, de Waal illustrates how behaving more like our wild mammalian cousins may just save humanity. His contention, colored by philosophical musings and fascinating anecdotes of observed emotional connections between animals, argues persuasively that humans are not greedy or belligerent because animals are; such traits are far from organic or inevitable but patently manmade.
Customer Reviews
An illuminating call to empathic arms
I approached this book after reading a newspaper article about HSPs (highly sensitive persons) and empaths, which I found compelling and identified with but which left me feeling as though it was branding empathy as a superpower and not as a universal part of human behaviour.
This book has done the opposite by examining empathy throughout the animal kingdom. It’s highly readable for the layperson like myself, the scientific research is presented with wit and good humour throughout, but that’s not to say the book is not a challenge as it dispels a lot of popular misconceptions and illuminates both our innate empathy and counter-empathy.
Through the author’s own firsthand research into bonobos, chimps and other primates, and through his absorption of wide ranging research by his peers into evolved behaviour in animals, he presents a rock solid case for empathy as an inextricable part of evolved animal behaviour and he also examines the inter species empathic response, crushes myths, analyses society and raises many more questions, as any good scientist should.
It’s not news to most people that society has evolved at a faster pace than our behaviour is capable of doing, but the sections in the book on the still prevalent malady of social Darwinism within our cultures are particularly astute and hard hitting.
I ended the book in tears, feeling awestruck with the beauty of our animal nature, feeling inspired by the potential in our innate empathy which we haven’t yet realised and feeling deep sadness for those among us who deny science for the sake of justifying greed, and deeper sadness for those who are damaged as a result.
I take this book as a warmly written, starkly poignant reminder that humanity as a whole needs to reassess what it means to be human, and we need to achieve that through individuals creating good in solidarity with each other, not by being prescribed to by those who have the most money and/or the greatest power.