I sometimes try to imagine what would have happened if we’d known the bonobo first and the chimpanzee … - Frans de Waal

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The best conversation is rare. Society seems to have agreed to treat fictions as realities, and realities as fictions; and the simple lover of truth, especially if on very high grounds, as a religious or intellectual seeker, finds himself a stranger and alien.

Frans de Waal

I sometimes try to imagine what would have happened if we’d known the bonobo first and the chimpanzee only later—or not at all. The discussion about human evolution might not revolve as much around violence, warfare and male dominance, but rather around sexuality, empathy, caring and cooperation. What a different intellectual landscape we would occupy!

Caring, Chimpanzee, Discussion, Empathy, Intellectual

Same Author Quotes

If you are a cooperative animal, you need to watch what you get. If you, or even a whole community, invest in something but then a few individuals receive a much larger return, it's not a good arrangement. If it happens consistently, it's time to look for an arrangement that is more beneficial. That's why we're so sensitive to how rewards are being divided.

Animal, Community, Good, Happens, Return, Sensitive

You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society. I'm not saying that you can derive moral rules from nature - that's deriving an ought from an is, as the philosophers say - but you do need to know what kind of animals we are if you want to design a stable society.

Animal, Design, Hands, Moral, Say, Species

Humanity is actually much more cooperative and empathic than [it's] given credit for.

Cooperative, Credit, Given, Humanity

Armies are a purely human invention. Most soldiers who go to war nowadays don't even do it because they're inherently aggressive.

Armies, Army, Invention, Purely, Soldier, War

If you want to design a successful human society, you need to know what kind of animal we are. Are we a social animal or a selfish animal? Do we respond better when we're solitary or living in a group?

Selfish, Successful, Animal, Group, Kind