Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22196 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01-11
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Synopsis
Arguments that animals possess an emotional life are often dismissed as sentimental anthropomorphism. This book challenges that notion by proposing that the objective scientific evidence for human emotions is all but non-existent. Thus, if the whole of our human psychological understanding rests on reflective inferences, why are the same criteria considered invalid for animals?

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and uplifting
This is an excellent book, well written and entertaining yes, but also with much evidence to support the writer's theories.

Whilst it might be argued that some of the evidence is anecdotal, that is probably best explained by the fact the author is so knowledgable and experienced in the subject, that he is able to accurately interpret selected animal behaviour without requiring hundreds of pointless scientific experiments.

The stories in this book will bring tears (mostly of joy) to the eyes of animal lovers everywhere. Enjoy!

Sweet and funny, but no real thinking required.
"When Elephants Weep" is an enjoyable read despite being misrepresented by its cover details. If you're looking for an analysis of whether animals are capable of emotions, you'd better look elsewhere, but if you're after a series of amusing and touching animal anecdotes, you're in the right place.

The author makes no real attempt to objectively analyse animals' emotional states or capabilities and doesn't need to: he states in the foreword that that animals can experience emotion is "obvious", and that he is a vegetarian on the basis that he could never eat anything with eyes, since the eyes are too reproachful.

So I should clarify: had the book been represented as a collection of animal stories in the mould of Gerald Durrell, this would be a five star read: a cracking holiday book by a real animal lover that'll keep you laughing, crying and turning the pages. As a scientific analysis, even as pop science (and with apologies to the author), this is laughable: lacking basic evidence for its arguments, and scrupulously avoiding objectivity by taking a biased point of view and stating its conclusions in the foreword.

Fun, but disappointingly shallow.