Specify Books Conducive To The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
| Original Title: | The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society |
| ISBN: | 0307407764 (ISBN13: 9780307407764) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Frans de Waal
Hardcover | Pages: 304 pages Rating: 3.98 | 1866 Users | 165 Reviews
Itemize Appertaining To Books The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
| Title | : | The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society |
| Author | : | Frans de Waal |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 304 pages |
| Published | : | September 22nd 2009 by Crown (first published January 1st 2009) |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. Psychology. Animals. Sociology. Philosophy. Anthropology |
Narrative Toward Books The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
"An important and timely message about the biological roots of human kindness."—Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape
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? 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.
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, and which seems to be evidenced by the current greed-driven stock market collapse. 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 may well 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.
Rating Appertaining To Books The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
Ratings: 3.98 From 1866 Users | 165 ReviewsPiece Appertaining To Books The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
Reading this book constantly reminded me of our arrogance to consider that animals are not conscious, feeling beings. The author, a primatologist, does a great job recounting decades of animal research to back up his claim that both humans and our related animal cousins have a long history of community, social structure and organization, and responsibility to that community. He does an excellent job providing empirical research evidence that demonstrates that many species, particularly the greatThere were so many variations on qualities related to empathy, it was a little overwhelming. Overall, though, the key point I appreciated was that empathy began (as did the more studied aggression and play) as a physical response. It's not some higher level function only humans possess. I'm most interested in the resistance people have to considering empathy a strength and this addresses that issue quite well.
After the Xmas 06 tsunami, European psychologists flocked to the sites in an attempt to help survivors with their PTSD.They discovered that talking with afflicted people one-on-one was in fact INCREASING their stress, further isolating them from their social responsibility.They eventually realized they had to treat villages as a whole as the social unit, facilitating their taking care of each other, rather than helping individuals.Because we forgot that our happiness is heavily dependent on that
The Age of Empathy: Natures Lessons for a Kinder Society By Frans de WaalThe Age of Empathy is an interesting look at human empathy and what it can teach us how in becoming a better society. 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 empathy and its long evolutionary history. This provocative 306-page book includes the following seven chapters: 1. Biology, Left and Right, 2. The Other
Our Animal Nature: A Glass Half-full ApproachThis book is primarily a detailed exploration of animal emotions (such as empathy) and on how they stunningly correspond to the human.Two main threads of thought emerge from this correspondence:1. The need to recognize animals as much closer to us and to treat them with that respect, empathy and humaneness.2. An optimism that the better angels of our nature are as deep-wired in us as the baser instincts that we call animal instincts. Both aspects are
Chimps have it. Elephants have it. Wolves have it. De Waal suggests the reason we dont recognize that empathy imbues at least the mammalian world is because of the Western worlds religious insistence that humans are outside of nature. He reports that when Queen Victoria first saw apes, she called them frightful, and painfully and disagreeably human. (207). Lot lurking in that queenly observation. De Waal believes that empathy is a part of a heritage as ancient as the mammalian line. Empathy
You've got to love a book about primates that has chapter headings with quotes by Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant. And that's why this book is so exceptional, it makes you reconsider what is so special about our species in the first place and whether the Western concept of human exceptionalism is even a healthy trait to begin with.Are concepts of justice, equality and empathy really glorious creations of the enlightenment or are they simply labels for phenomena that occur across the animal kingdom?
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