Frans de Waal (1948—2024), author of Mama's Last Hug, was C. H. Candler Professor Emeritus of Primate Behavior at Emory University and the former director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
"A tour de force."
*Christopher Boehm - Nature*
"A writer marshaling the evidence of his life, particularly his
life as a scientist, to express a passionately held belief in the
possibility of a more compassionate society."
*Meehan Crist - New Republic*
"A primatologist who has spent his career studying chimpanzees and
bonobos, two of humanity’s closest living relatives, Mr. de Waal
draws on a lifetime of empirical research. His data provides plenty
of evidence that religion is not necessary in order for animals to
display something that looks strikingly like human morality."
*The Economist*
"The perpetual challenge to atheists is that moral behavior
requires religion—all that prevents tsunamis of depravity is a
deity or two, some nice hymns, and the threat of hellfire and
damnation. De Waal shows that human morality is deeply rooted in
our primate legacy, long predating the invention of that cultural
gizmo called religion. This is an immensely important book by one
of our most distinguished thinkers."
*Robert Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers and
Monkeyluv*
"Frans de Waal’s new book carries the important message that human
kindness is a biological feature of our species and not something
that has to be imposed on us by religious teaching."
*Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape*
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