num_pages: 320
description: A dazzling delightful read on what animal cognition can teach us about our own mental shortcomings. - Adam GrantThis funny extraordinary and thought-provoking (The Wall Street Journal) book asks whether we are in fact the superior species. As it turns out the truth is strangerand far more interestingthan we have been led to believe.If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal overturns everything we thought we knew about human intelligence and asks the question: would humans be better off as narwhals? Or some other less brainy species? Theres a good argument to be made that humans might be a less successful animal species precisely because of our amazing complex intelligence. All our unique gifts like language math and science do not make us happier or more successful (evolutionarily speaking) than other species. Our intelligence allowed us to split the atom but weve harnessed that knowledge to make machines of war. We are uniquely susceptible to bullshit (though cuttlefish may be the best liars in the animal kingdom); our bizarre obsession with lawns has contributed to the growing threat of climate change; we are sexually diverse like many species yet stand apart as homophobic; and discriminate among our own as if its natural which it certainly is not. Is our intelligence more of a curse than a gift? As scientist Justin Gregg persuasively argues theres an evolutionary reason why human intelligence isnt more prevalent in the animal kingdom. Simply put non-human animals dont need it to be successful. And miraculously their success arrives without the added baggage of destroying themselves and the planet in the process. In seven mind-bending and hilarious chapters Gregg highlights one feature seemingly unique to humansour use of language our rationality our moral systems our so-called sophisticated consciousnessand compares it to our animal brethren. Along the way remarkable tales of animal smarts emerge as youll discover: The house cat whos better at picking winning stocks than actual fund managers Elephants who love to drinkPigeons who are better than radiologists at spotting cancerous tissueBumblebees who are geniuses at teaching each other soccer What emerges is both demystifying and remarkable and will change how you look at animals humans and the meaning of life itself.
language: English
title: If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity
publisher: Little, Brown and Company