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Article: Intelligence, language, morality: the neuroscience of human endurance.(THE GOOD BOOK)(general interest books on neuroscience)(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Humanist
- Article date:
- May 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 American Humanist Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WITH RECENT REPORTS of primate altruism and even superior short-term memory skills among young chimpanzees, not to mention the ability to plan for the future demonstrated by the rock collector and hurtler chimp, Santino, one might wonder what it is exactly that makes the human brain so special. Many answers are by no means clear, but in Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique (Ecco, 2008), the exceptionally influential neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga confronts the deep mysteries of cognitive evolution as well as anyone could for a general audience.
Many presume the great size of our brains to have made the human difference. But recall that extinct ...