Audiobooks by Frans De Waal

[Spanish] - El Último abrazo: Las emociones de los animales y lo que nos cuentan de nosotros (Animal

"Este libro comienza narrando el último encuentro entre Mama, una hembra de chimpancé moribunda, y su cuidador. La escena, en la que Mama intenta sonreír mientras se abraza a la persona que se ocupó de ella durante años fue filmada y ha emocionado a millones de personas a través de la red. Al hilo de este episodio, De Waal habla del significado de las expresiones faciales, las emociones ocultas tras la política humana o la ilusión de la libertad. Esta obra describe las múltiples maneras en que los humanos y el resto de animales estamos íntimamente conectados y nos muestra que los humanos no somos la única especie capaz de amar, odiar, temer o avergonzarse."

Frans De Waal (Author), Rubén Flores (Narrator)

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Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

"From world-renowned biologist and primatologist Frans de Waal comes this groundbreaking work on animal intelligence destined to become a classic. What separates your mind from an animal’s? Maybe you think it’s your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future―all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the planet’s preeminent species. But in recent decades, these claims have been eroded—or even disproved outright—by a revolution in the study of animal cognition. Take the way octopuses use coconut shells as tools; elephants that classify humans by age, gender, and language; or Ayumu, the young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame. Based on research involving crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, whales, and of course chimpanzees and bonobos, Frans de Waal explores both the scope and the depth of animal intelligence. He offers a firsthand account of how science has stood traditional behaviorism on its head by revealing how smart animals really are—and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long. People often assume a cognitive ladder, from lower to higher forms, with our own intelligence at the top. But what if it is more like a bush, with cognition taking different, often incomparable, forms? Would you presume yourself dumber than a squirrel because you’re less adept at recalling the locations of hundreds of buried acorns? Or would you judge your perception of your surroundings as more sophisticated than that of a echolocating bat? De Waal reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed. De Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal―and human―intelligence."

Frans De Waal (Author), Sean Runnette (Narrator)

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Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved

"'It's the animal in us,' we often hear when we've been bad. But why not when we're good? Primates and Philosophers tackles this question by exploring the biological foundations of one of humanity's most valued traits: morality. In this provocative audiobook, primatologist Frans de Waal argues that modern-day evolutionary biology takes far too dim a view of the natural world, emphasizing our 'selfish' genes. Science has thus exacerbated our reciprocal habits of blaming nature when we act badly and labeling the good things we do as 'humane'. Seeking the origin of human morality not in evolution but in human culture, science insists that we are moral by choice, not by nature. Citing remarkable evidence based on his extensive research of primate behavior, de Waal attacks 'Veneer Theory', which posits morality as a thin overlay on an otherwise nasty nature. He explains how we evolved from a long line of animals that care for the weak and build cooperation with reciprocal transactions. Drawing on both Darwin and recent scientific advances, de Waal demonstrates a strong continuity between human and animal behavior. In the process, he also probes issues such as anthropomorphism and human responsibilities toward animals. Based on the Tanner Lectures de Waal delivered at Princeton University's Center for Human Values in 2004, Primates and Philosophers includes responses by the philosophers Peter Singer, Christine M. Korsgaard, and Phillip Kitcher, and the science writer Robert Wright. They press de Waal to clarify the differences between humans and other animals, yielding a lively debate that will fascinate all those who wonder about the origins and reach of human goodness."

Frans De Waal (Author), Alan Sklar (Narrator)

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