The Age of Empathy, Frans de Waal
The Age of Empathy, Frans de Waal
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The Age of Empathy
Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society

Author: Frans de Waal

Narrator: Alan Sklar

Unabridged: 10 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/06/2009


Synopsis

Is it really human nature to stab one another in the back in our climb up the corporate ladder? Competitive, selfish behavior is often explained away as instinctive, thanks to evolution and "survival of the fittest," but, in fact, humans are equally hard-wired for empathy.

Using research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, animal behavior, and neuroscience, Frans de Waal brilliantly argues that humans are group animals—highly cooperative, sensitive to injustice, and mostly peace-loving—just like other primates, elephants, and dolphins. This revelation has profound implications for everything from politics to office culture.

About Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal, Ph.D., is a biologist and ethologist, world-renowned for his work on the social intelligence of primates such as chimpanzees, bonobos, capuchins, and macaques. He is credited with the discovery of reconciliation in chimpanzees, and he is the founder of the field of conflict resolution research in animals. He was the first scientist to show that apes resolve conflicts, cooperate, and console one another. He is the author of eight books, including The Ape and the Sushi Master, a New York Times Notable Book, and Peacemaking Among Primates, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award. De Waal is currently the C. H. Candler Professor in the psychology department of Emory University and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Riku on March 21, 2014

Our Animal Nature: A Glass Half-full Approach This 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......more

Goodreads review by Tyler on November 07, 2009

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......more

Goodreads review by Francisco on September 19, 2012

Every once in a while, when your heart is heavy with all the fighting and hatred and envy and competition and the nastiness of your fellow humans, it is good to read about the kindness of other animals (besides man). Yes, there is plenty of cruelty in nature but there is also cooperation, compassion......more

Goodreads review by Cameron on November 09, 2011

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 commun......more

Goodreads review by Hákon on February 15, 2018

This is the second book by Frans de Waal that I read, and I like his work so much that he is fast becoming one of my favorite non fiction writer. He is very good at writing about animals, and the research that is being done into their behavior, a subject that I’m quite interested in. He does it with......more