Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans De Waal, 340 pages

The short answer is: yes we are (this is not a spoiler). The caveat is that we have to go about it the right way. We can't measure the intelligence of other animals the way we measure our intelligence. We have to take into account their physical nature and the uses they put their intelligence to.

Through anecdotes and studies, De Waal sets out to show that other animals are more intelligent than we think they are. He talks about the fight to get people to believe this including some people in academia. As humans we want to believe that there is a large separation between us and other animals. In fact, there are some tasks that other animals can do better than we can. Overall, we can be shown to be more intelligent but it seems to be harder to show that there is one significant thing that sets us apart.

I liked this book but would characterize it as somewhat dry even though it is written for laypeople. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the subject of animal cognition.