Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "law-of-parsimony"
Treasures of Animal Anecdotes and Analysis
In The Human Nature of Birds, Theodore X. Barber (New York, Penguin books, 1994) credits his “illiterate Greek grandparents” with showing him that there is “an intelligence that is deeper than words.”
Such is the intelligence of all creatures who live and reproduce for an average of four million years, until their species’ luck turns their genetic imperatives in new directions. They don’t speak with words as they teach their offspring to survive with the food and shelter that the natural world provides. When their world no longer provides, they reinvent themselves or die out, as will we if we cannot stand the heat.
In the last half of the twentieth century, several authors dared to counter the voices insisting on the Law of Parsimony—that animals are automatons obeying their genes, like some kind of mindless machines. (See Carrigher’s Wild Heritage, reviewed below, for a detailed history.) Now behavior scientists are free to understand and study the power of intelligence and emotions deeper than words. They are careful not to attribute human traits to lives driven by different needs but blessed with talents that may or may not resemble ours. Frans deWaal and Temple Grandin have paved the way to a better understanding of those who have had just as much time to evolve as we have.
This essay is a tribute to the earlier authors who have given us a wealth of anecdotes and observations, daring to describe the world of animals and birds in words that compared our experience with theirs without exaggeration. Some even dared to give us a view of the animal’s world through their eyes, trying with success to tap into their intelligence, deeper than words.
Here are some of those books: The often poetic language of Sally Carrighar gives us a view of one day at the same location through the eyes of very different creatures—Icebound Summer, One Day At Teton Marsh, Wild Heritage, One Day At Beetle Rock.
Victor B. Sheffer in The Year of the Whale, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969, follows of whale calf through each month of the year with added tales and observations.
Robert Stenuit, The Dolphin, Cousin to Man, New York, Bantam, 1968.
Vance Packard in The Human Side of Animals, New York, Dial Press, 1950 describes the observations made in early animal behavior studies, complete with photos in the 1961 Pocket Book edition.
Animals Nobody Loves by Ronald Rood, New York, Bantam, 1971, the way they act and look--eel, vulture, pig, flea, rat...
Have you run across some other early books that don’t indulge in the sin of anthropomorphism?
Such is the intelligence of all creatures who live and reproduce for an average of four million years, until their species’ luck turns their genetic imperatives in new directions. They don’t speak with words as they teach their offspring to survive with the food and shelter that the natural world provides. When their world no longer provides, they reinvent themselves or die out, as will we if we cannot stand the heat.
In the last half of the twentieth century, several authors dared to counter the voices insisting on the Law of Parsimony—that animals are automatons obeying their genes, like some kind of mindless machines. (See Carrigher’s Wild Heritage, reviewed below, for a detailed history.) Now behavior scientists are free to understand and study the power of intelligence and emotions deeper than words. They are careful not to attribute human traits to lives driven by different needs but blessed with talents that may or may not resemble ours. Frans deWaal and Temple Grandin have paved the way to a better understanding of those who have had just as much time to evolve as we have.
This essay is a tribute to the earlier authors who have given us a wealth of anecdotes and observations, daring to describe the world of animals and birds in words that compared our experience with theirs without exaggeration. Some even dared to give us a view of the animal’s world through their eyes, trying with success to tap into their intelligence, deeper than words.
Here are some of those books: The often poetic language of Sally Carrighar gives us a view of one day at the same location through the eyes of very different creatures—Icebound Summer, One Day At Teton Marsh, Wild Heritage, One Day At Beetle Rock.
Victor B. Sheffer in The Year of the Whale, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969, follows of whale calf through each month of the year with added tales and observations.
Robert Stenuit, The Dolphin, Cousin to Man, New York, Bantam, 1968.
Vance Packard in The Human Side of Animals, New York, Dial Press, 1950 describes the observations made in early animal behavior studies, complete with photos in the 1961 Pocket Book edition.
Animals Nobody Loves by Ronald Rood, New York, Bantam, 1971, the way they act and look--eel, vulture, pig, flea, rat...
Have you run across some other early books that don’t indulge in the sin of anthropomorphism?
Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction
Expanding on the ideas portrayed in The Archives of Varok books for securing the future.
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