What Do Animals Think and Feel?

October 1, 2020
As behavioral scientist Brensing muses in his introduction to this interesting addition to the ever-increasing canon of books on animal cognition, What actually distinguishes us from other animals? Brensing takes the reader on a spin through the animal kingdom, looking at animal cultures?defined as information or behavior acquired by means of social learning from the same species?and the more narrow aspects of culture such as tool use, language, and the sense of community. Once the basics of culture are established, the author examines the questions of thought, self-awareness, personality, and sentimentality. However, in what may be the most fascinating section of the book, Brensing applies what he previously discussed about nonhuman animals to our own species. As the "pinnacle of creation," we forget how close we are to other animals, and yet we differ profoundly from them in our use of complex language. But we can also make massive mistakes in our understanding of our fellow animals, and Brensing provides numerous examples of mistaken interpretations of experimental results. A final plea for the rights of animal persons completes a nice synthesis of current research.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)