Minds I’ve Met: The Inner Lives of Animals

Over the last five decades, how we think about animals has undergone a seismic change. And with it, so too has how we think about ourselves, and our place in the animal kingdom. For decades, scientists viewed animals as little more than automatons – creatures running on instinct, lacking in intelligence. It was, for Frans de Waal, a period of ‘anthropodenial’, in which scientists practiced a deliberate blindness to the human-like characteristics of other animals or the animal-like characteristics of humans. Instead, Homo sapiens remained at the top the pyramid, despite the growing evidence that the traits that marked us as ‘special’ – sentience, self-awareness and empathy, cultural and social behaviour – were repeatedly being found among other animals. From the reconciliatory kisses of chimpanzees and the politics of elephants to the three-inch fish that can recognise itself in a mirror, Minds I’ve Met is an inside account of the discoveries that changed the way we view the animal mind, revealing their advanced cognitive abilities and their emotional lives. Combining memoir with a history of science and a celebration of the animals, Frans de Waal charts the breakthroughs – his own and those of the wider community – which have brought humans ever closer to the rest of the animal world.