Though we may, at some point in the future, discover that we are not Earth's only highly intelligent species, this much is inarguable. We are the masters of Earth. Perhaps, in the decades and the centuries to come, we will even be the masters of outer space, and the planets we'll find out in that immeasurable vastness. With this in mind, there are surely few academic pursuits more important than primatology, the study of the apes from which we have evolved. After all, short of a gigantic leap forward in our understanding of the human brain, it will be through studying these creatures that we will understand ourselves. And we must understand ourselves if we are to survive long enough to build a better, grander future. To that end, The Age of Empathy does not disappoint.
From mirror neurons to Emotional contagion, from Selection Pressure to Targeted Helping, Mr. de Waal, a primatologist and professor of primate behavior, endeavors, in The Age of Empathy investigate the roots and the components of empathy in primates. After all, looked at superficially, empathy, that is identifying oneself with another's pain, ought to be a weakness, not a strength. It causes us to sacrifice our hard-earned resources and privileges to bring aid to others, some of whom are strangers who we may never meet again. For creatures so obviously driven by self-interest, how could such an Achilles heel have been allowed to persist?
Mr. de Waal argues that, far from a weakness, empathy is a vital cog in the wheel that drives human communities. For it is empathy that allows us to connect with our fellows, to form relationships with our loved ones, to bind ourselves with our friends in common and related cause. We only think of empathy as weak because of the extent to which the Social Darwinists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have distorted evolution in order to fit it into their central fantasy, that humans are driven by self-interest because only the fittest survive. This theory has propagated through human culture not because it is right, but because it justifies the ruthlessness with which the few can exploit the many. Mr. de Waal points out that this theory is clearly wrong. Every time it has been tried, suppressing empathy in favor of self-interest, the communities in question have been riddled with coldly calculating creatures who are tragically damaged and incapable of kindness. Given that such communities are, in primates and inhumanity, vastly outnumbered by communities founded on empathy and shared purpose, the theory of rational self-interest must be wrong.
Drawing on his decades of experience observing and learning from primates, Mr. de Waal replaces self-interest with a broader theory of human nature, that, in order to survive, primates became social beings and that humans have only emphasized this trait in their own evolution. For creatures to socially coexist, empathy is essential for the creation of relationships that knit communities together. More importantly, empathy is a stepping stone to trust which is the currency of human relationships, not self-interest. This has been demonstrated not only in experiments with primates, but in numerous examinations of other animals and, of course, countless human experiences.
The Age of Empathy is provocative work. Mr. de Waal is unafraid to extrapolate the lessons he has learned from studying primates and to apply them to both human behavior and human politics. While a sincere admirer of the American spirit, highlighting the United States as perhaps the lone country in the world where achievement beyond ones fellows is celebrated as a great and commendable goal, he is deeply critical of the extent to which the American people have lapsed into an unhealthy distrust of their government. In pointing out how important the virtues of trust and fairness are to primates, he clearly believes that this enmity will only sow discord within the American community and drive away quality people from what are the country's most critical posts. In this, Mr. de Waal connects his academic work to the broader world in a way that transforms the series of fascinating experiments described here into lessons on human nature that could profoundly impact the way we interact with one another. Though the author convincingly dispels the myth of survival of the fittest, he does not convince the reader that he has all the answers. But then, vitally, he never claims to have all the answers. He only endeavors to discover them and opine on their meaning which is its own form of admirable behavior.
This is popular science for those looking to nature for answers to questions about human nature. For those who do not believe that primates have anything to offer us, they will find here only frustration and fodder for polemics. (4/5 Stars)
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