Beasts: What Animals can Teach us about the Origins of Good and Evil

by Jeffery Moussaieff Masson

In his previous bestsellers, Masson has showed us that animals can teach us much about our own emotions—love (dogs), contentment (cats), and grief (elephants), among others. In Beasts, he demonstrates that the violence we perceive in the wild is a matter of projection.

Animal predators kill to survive, but animal aggression is not even remotely equivalent to the violence of mankind. Humans are the most violent animals to our own kind in existence. We lack what other animals have: a check on the aggression that would destroy the species rather than serve it. In Beasts, Masson brings to life the richness of the animal world and strips away our misconceptions of the creatures we fear, offering a powerful and compelling look at our uniquely human propensity towards aggression.

213 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting questions to contemplate: How is that humans are far behind almost every other animal when it comes to living in harmony with their own nature and nature? Are we the only animals willing to risk our lives for the sake of an animal of a completely different species (except dogs)? Is it true that the advent of agriculture and domestication of animals was a tragic mistake in our evolution, changing out relationship to other animals and reinforcing a notion of both superiority and separation? Have we traumatized other species as well as ourselves? As Plumwood states did this hyperseparation set humans up as masters of nature in which we have manipulated our selves to be a species of warriors at war with other species rather than coexisting with them? What would we look like as a species if we had greater respect for nature? How can it be so easy to convince one human of the inhumanity of another? As there is no serious evidence to support the idea that other animals beside humans engage in mass killing of one another, what makes us so violent to one another and to other species? Is there anything to be done about it? Can we cultivate awe in relation to other creatures and the natural world?

[Izzy Lashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea behind this was good but there was just too much of other people’s writing. So many huge blocks of quotes.