There exists an undeniable chasm between the capacities of humans
and those of animals. Our minds have spawned civilizations and
technologies that have changed the face of the Earth, whereas even
our closest animal relatives sit unobtrusively in their dwindling
habitats. Yet despite longstanding debates, the nature of this
apparent gap has remained unclear. What exactly is the difference
between our minds and theirs?
In "The Gap," psychologist Thomas Suddendorf provides a definitive
account of the mental qualities that separate humans from other
animals, as well as how these differences arose. Drawing on two
decades of research on apes, children, and human evolution, he
surveys the abilities most often cited as uniquely human--language,
intelligence, morality, culture, theory of mind, and mental time
travel--and finds that two traits account for most of the ways in
which our minds appear so distinct: Namely, our open-ended ability
to imagine and reflect on scenarios, and our insatiable drive to
link our minds together. These two traits explain how our species
was able to amplify qualities that we inherited in parallel with
our animal counterparts; transforming animal communication into
language, memory into mental time travel, sociality into mind
reading, problem solving into abstract reasoning, traditions into
culture, and empathy into morality.
Suddendorf concludes with the provocative suggestion that our
unrivalled status may be our own creation--and that the gap is
growing wider not so much because we are becoming smarter but
because we are killing off our closest intelligent animal
relatives.
Weaving together the latest findings in animal behavior, child
development, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience, this book
will change the way we think about our place in nature. A major
argument for reconsidering what makes us human, "The Gap" is
essential reading for anyone interested in our evolutionary origins
and our relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom.
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