The Gap (book)
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The Gap is a 2013 nonfiction book by Thomas Suddendorf that discusses what cognitive qualities separate humans from other animals, and how they evolved.
The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals. Basic Books: New York
Praise
“Beautifully written, well researched and thought provoking, The Gap searches for key differences between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, and presents a balanced overview of the current status of our understanding of the mental abilities of animals. I found it fascinating and strongly recommend it to everyone who is curious as to how we have evolved to become the dominant species in the world today. Thank you, Thomas Suddendorf, for writing this book.” —Jane Goodall
“An excellent work which probably stands alone in its field.” —Richard Leakey
From the publisher's website
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.
Reviews
- Anil Ananthaswamy (27 January 2014). What separates us from other animals? New Scientist Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129531.100-what-separates-us-from-other-animals.html
- Robyn Williams (March 2014). The science of what separates us from other animals. Australian Book Review. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/113-march-2014-no-359/1859-the-gap
- Joseph Maldonado (2013). The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals. Psych Central. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-gap-the-science-of-what-separates-us-from-other-animals/00018372
- Steven Mithen (3 April 2013). Most of Us Are Part Neanderthal. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/apr/03/most-us-are-part-neanderthal/?page=2
- Wray Herbert (10 February 2014). Social Animals - Pondering the limits of anthropomorphism. The Weekly Standard Vol. 19, No. 21. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/social-animals_775990.html
- David Barash (15 November 2013). Book Review: 'The Gap' by Thomas Suddendorf - What makes humans unique—tools? Language? Cooking?. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579169670682265630
- Nina Bai (17 October 2013). MIND Reviews: The Gap. Scientific American Mind volume 24 issue 5. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-reviews-the-gap/
- Eric Michael Johnson (20 March 2014).The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals, by Thomas Suddendorf. The Times Higher Education. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/the-gap-the-science-of-what-separates-us-from-other-animals-by-thomas-suddendorf/2012081.article
- Staff writer (26 August 2013). The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-465-03014-9
- Tim Radford (7 November 2013). Human evolution: Us and them. Nature. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v503/n7474/full/503034a.html
- Bryan Sim (16 May 2014). How great a separation? Science. Retrieved on October 5, 2014, from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6185/695.1.full
- Staff writer (12 November 2013). The Gap - The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals. Kirkus Reviews Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thomas-suddendorf/the-gap/
- Rob Brooks (3 June 2014). What makes us human? The Conversation. Retrieved on October 6, 2014, from http://theconversation.com/what-makes-us-human-24764
