Meet the neighbors; Animal minds and life in a more-than-human world

   Title of the book: Meet the neighbors; Animal minds and life in a more-than-human world 

Author: Brandon Keim 

Publisher: W.W Norton 

Publishing Date: 2024

ISBN: 978-1-324-00708-1

Summary:

What does the science of animal intelligence mean for how we understand and live with the wild creatures around us?

Honeybees deliberate democratically. Rats reflect on the past. Snakes have friends. In recent decades, our understanding of animal cognition has exploded, making it indisputably clear that the cities and landscapes around us are filled with thinking, feeling individuals besides ourselves. But the way we relate to wild animals has yet to catch up. In Meet the Neighbors, acclaimed science journalist Brandon Keim asks: what would it mean to take the minds of other animals seriously?

In this wide-ranging, wonder-filled exploration of animals’ inner lives, Keim takes us into courtrooms and wildlife hospitals, under backyard decks and into deserts, to meet anew the wild creatures who populate our communities and the philosophers, rogue pest controllers, ecologists, wildlife doctors, and others who are reimagining our relationships to them. If bats trade favors and groups of swans vote to take off by honking, should we then see them as fellow persons—even members of society? When we come to understand the depths of their pleasures and pains, the richness of their family lives and their histories, what do we owe so-called pests and predators, or animals who are sick or injured? Can thinking of nonhumans as our neighbors help chart a course to a kinder, gentler planet? As Keim suggests, the answers to these questions are central to how we understand not only the rest of the living world, but ourselves.

A beguiling invitation to discover an expanded sense of community and kinship beyond our own species, Meet the Neighbors opens our eyes to the world of vibrant intelligence just outside our doors.

Author Info:
(From goodreads) 

N/A

Personal Opinion:

What I expected were perhaps a lot of animal anecdotes and learning a lot of fascinating facts about them. While the reader was able to get that and learn about various connections between animals, insects and humans, the author goes in a lot deeper and begins to speak of logistics as well as philosophy of what that can look like. He probes deeply into the questions, often using legal cases or what science has determined about animals. It's a definitely an interesting read as well as a bit unsettling in my opinion because what will it mean? The argument that the author presented, of how humans are taught to see animals as well as how it influenced our behavior towards them, definitely matches up to the book. Luckily today that is changing and animals will no longer be seen as lesser than. For those interested either in philosophy or animal rights/conservation laws, then this will be an excellent read. 

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)