Dutch - Scientist | October 29, 1948 -
War is evitable if conditions are such that the costs of making war are higher than the benefits.
Frans de Waal
WarBenefitsCostsThanHigher
There's a long tradition in Western thought that humans are not shackled by biology, whereas animals are pure instinct machines.
ThoughtTraditionLongBiologyPure
There are beautiful examples of art done by chimpanzees in human care.
BeautifulArtCareDoneHuman
Following rules is, of course, the reason the dog is man's best friend is because the dog follows rules, and they actually do experiments on that, is that how well certain breeds of dogs follow rules, and how much they internalize them. And so many hierarchical animals, obviously they follow rules.
DogFriendBestManBest Friend
Science is not inherently good.
GoodScienceInherently
Sometimes I read about someone saying with great authority that animals have no intentions and no feelings, and I wonder, 'Doesn't this guy have a dog?'
DogGreatSayingSomeoneFeelings
In Africa, we have the bush meat trade, which means that, on a very large scale, animals are being killed in the forests and sold in the cities as a luxury food.
FoodLuxuryAnimalsAfricaMeat
Chimpanzees have very strong preferences and aversions that are completely personality-linked. The people who are unsuccessful in working with chimpanzees are those who take this personally.
PeopleStrongTakeWorkingWhoVery
I think we need to start thinking about grounding our moral systems in our biology.
StartThinkThinkingBiologyMoral
Religions have a strong binding function and a cohesive element. They emphasize the primacy of the community as opposed to the individual, and they also help set one community apart from another that doesn't share their beliefs.
CommunityStrongHelpReligionsSet
Understanding the need for religion is a far superior goal to bashing it.
ReligionUnderstandingGoalNeedFar
There are many reasons for kindness, and religion is just one of them.
KindnessReligionJust OneJustMany
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