Can animals plan for the future? Frans de Waal cites examples to the affirmative in his account of research into the cognition of creatures other than ourselves. The Emory University psychology professor has been at the forefront of efforts to refute the previous scientific paradigm that animals are nothing more than “stimulus response machines,” a theory any animal lover would dispute. De Waal finds remarkable cognitive abilities in all creatures, albeit often radically different from our own.
The consciousness of other animals is also a matter of informed guessing at best. He concedes that even the “behavioral evolution” of humans is rife with speculation, since information on our ancestors from as recently as 20,000 years ago is incomplete. If De Waal has a fault, it’s his implication that all creatures are equal when, for better or worse, humans are the only species with the power to significantly alter or even destroy our world.
