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A review by melitrophium
La scimmia che siamo: Il passato e il futuro della natura umana by Frans de Waal, Fiorenza Conte
slow-paced
0.5
So close to being a DNF. The author acknowledges that different primates live in societies that are similar in some ways but different nonetheless, so how does he forget that it applies to humans as well? Why must EVERYTHING be evidence of The One True Human Nature™️?
He keeps making absurd inferences (with a bunch of bioessentialism too, and very freudian) and it puts me off his genuinely scientific observations (which are surprisingly scarce given the premise). He generalizes to hell and back and he's EXTREMELY biased, e.g. how come war isn't caused by biology and we can regolate our impulses but hierarchies definitely are and fighting them is useless (because apparently a part of us needs them to survive)? Is it just because he disagrees with war and agrees with hierarchies? He sure provides no argument to think otherwise.
I held on because some fun facts were enjoyable, but looking back I regret wasting my time. I'm actually astounded the rating is so high. Did we read the same book? Did everyone else DNF? Did you guys not care about anything but the fun anecdotes?
He keeps making absurd inferences (with a bunch of bioessentialism too, and very freudian) and it puts me off his genuinely scientific observations (which are surprisingly scarce given the premise). He generalizes to hell and back and he's EXTREMELY biased, e.g. how come war isn't caused by biology and we can regolate our impulses but hierarchies definitely are and fighting them is useless (because apparently a part of us needs them to survive)? Is it just because he disagrees with war and agrees with hierarchies? He sure provides no argument to think otherwise.
I held on because some fun facts were enjoyable, but looking back I regret wasting my time. I'm actually astounded the rating is so high. Did we read the same book? Did everyone else DNF? Did you guys not care about anything but the fun anecdotes?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Sexism