Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals (Macmillan Science) - Hardcover

Balcombe, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230613624 ISBN 13: 9780230613621

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Synopsis

Jonathan Balcombe's follow-up to his successful first book, Pleasurable Kingdom, is an eloquent and scientifically informed account, which shatters the myth that animals eat and reproduce mindlessly and shows how we humans have to learn to treat them as sentient beings capable of feelings and pain and emotions.

About this title

Review:

 
'...fascinating, well-written, consistently thought-provoking, and deserves a wide readership.' – The Guardian

'Jonathan Balcombe has brought together...evidence that animals have far more in common with us humans than we might like to suppose.  As well as cunning and intelligence, they can also show kindness and sensitivity.' - The Evening Standard 
 
'...captivating and disquieting...' - Human Givens
 
'...J.M. Coetzee...praises Balcombe as "a scientist who has escaped the narrow orthodoxies of institutional science". This is true." - TLS

 
Praise for Pleasurable Kingdom: 

'Brisk, erudite and enormously entertaining  - an excellent, approachable introduction to the basic issues in animal behaviour.' - Publishers Weekly

'Entertaining examples of animal bliss  - from drunken parrots to the caresses of fiddler crabs — bring a pleasure all their own.' - Psychology Today

'This well-reasoned, engaging book argues that critters share our capacities for humor, empathy and aesthetic pleasure.' - People Magazine

'This entertaining and thought-provoking book is recommended for popular science collections.' - Library Journal

'Fascinating and often moving, this book emphasizes that animals  - like us  - truly have personalities, minds and emotions.' - Jane Goodall, Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

'Superb  - has set an agenda for future research. This book will change how we interact with other animal beings.' - Marc Bekoff in Trends in Ecology& Evolution

'A well-argued thesis.' - Scientific American

'... lively, shrewd, well-argued ... an admirable contribution.' - Mary Midgley, in Times Higher Education Supplement
 

Book Description:

The full depth and breadth of animal existence is revealed with a foreword by J.M. Coetzee

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0230613624
• ISBN 13: 9780230613621
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256