000			02499nam a2200277 i 4500
001			026027
005			20231009193229.0
008			140527s2014 nyu b 000 0 eng
010			_a2013034314
020			_a9781608196159
042			_apcc
050	0	0	_aGN495.2 _b.M37 2014
082	0	0	_a591.51 MAS
100	1		_aMasson, Jeffrey Moussaieff _d, 1941-
245	1	0	_aBeasts _b: what animals can teach us about the origins of good and evil _c/ Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
260			_aNew York _b: Bloomsbury _c, 2014
300			_a213 p. _c; 25cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references
520			_aThere are two supreme predators on the planet with the most complex brains in nature: humans and orcas. In the twentieth century alone, one of these animals killed 200 million members of its own species, the other has killed none. Jeffrey Masson's fascinating new book begins here: There is something different about us. In his previous bestsellers, Masson has showed that animals can teach us much about our own emotions -- love (dogs), contentment (cats), grief (elephants), among others. But animals have much to teach us about negative emotions such as anger and aggression as well, and in unexpected ways. In Beasts he demonstrates that the violence we perceive in the "wild" is mostly a matter of projection. We link the basest human behavior to animals, to "beasts" ("he behaved no better than a beast"), and claim the high ground for our species. We are least human, we think, when we succumb to our primitive, animal ancestry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Animals, at least predators, kill to survive, but there is nothing in the annals of animal aggression remotely equivalent to the violence of mankind. Our burden is that humans, and in particular humans in our modern industrialized world, are the most violent animals to our own kind in existence, or possibly ever in existence on earth. We lack what all other animals have: a check on the aggression that would destroy the species rather than serve it. It is here, Masson says, that animals have something to teach us about our own history. In Beasts, he strips away our misconceptions of the creatures we fear, offering a powerful and compelling look at our uniquely human propensity toward aggression.
650		0	_aViolence _x--Social aspects
650		0	_aCruelty _x--Social aspects
650		0	_aAnimal behavior
650		4	_aEmotions in animals
650		0	_aAnimal psychology
942			_cMO
999			_c265971 _d265971