Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "mark-twain"

Are Humans the Only Animal With A Passion For Revenge?

In my opinion, Mark Twain’s Third Horrendous Commendation of the Human Race as inferior to all other animals is Simply Wrong. Quotes cited below are from Mark Twain’s Letters From the Earth: Uncensored Writings, the letter entitled “The Damned Human Race, Section V. The Lowest Animal.”

In this ten-page article, Mark Twain (MT) lays out the evidence as he saw it at a terrible time in his life. Perhaps we should excuse him, but on this point I can’t agree. Personal experience with dolphins has told me that revenge is not unique to the human animal.

This is third in the Mark Twain blog series on my personal web site caryneeper.com dealing with Mark Twain's 13 reasons why humans are the lowliest of the animals.

That's why I recommended Frans DeWaal's "Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor" as a good read for all my friends interested in Science, Non-fiction and Psychology.