What do you think?
Rate this book
Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind
In 1838 Charles Darwin jotted in a notebook, “He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.” Baboon Metaphysics is Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth’s fascinating response to Darwin’s challenge.
Cheney and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they could intimately observe baboons and their social world. Baboons live in groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term friendships based on careful calculations of status and individual need.
But Baboon Metaphysics is concerned with much more than just baboons’ social organization—Cheney and Seyfarth aim to fully comprehend the intelligence that underlies it. Using innovative field experiments, the authors learn that for baboons, just as for humans, family and friends hold the key to mitigating the ill effects of grief, stress, and anxiety.
Written with a scientist’s precision and a nature-lover’s eye, Baboon Metaphysics gives us an unprecedented and compelling glimpse into the mind of another species.
“The vivid narrative is like a bush detective story.”—Steven Poole, Guardian
“ Baboon Metaphysics is a distillation of a big chunk of academic lives. . . . It is exactly what such a book should be—full of imaginative experiments, meticulous scholarship, limpid literary style, and above all, truly important questions.”—Alison Jolly, Science
“Cheney and Seyfarth found that for a baboon to get on in life involves a complicated blend of short-term relationships, friendships, and careful status calculations. . . . Needless to say, the ensuing political machinations and convenient romantic dalliances in the quest to become numero uno rival the bard himself.”— Science News
“Cheney and Seyfarth’s enthusiasm is obvious, and their knowledge is vast and expressed with great clarity. All this makes Baboon Metaphysics a captivating read. It will get you thinking—and maybe spur you to travel to Africa to see it all for yourself.”—Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature
“Through ingenious playback experiments . . . Cheney and Seyfarth have worked out many aspects of what baboons used their minds for, along with their limitations. Reading a baboon’s mind affords an excellent grasp of the dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence.”—Nicholas Wade, New York Times
Cheney and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they could intimately observe baboons and their social world. Baboons live in groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term friendships based on careful calculations of status and individual need.
But Baboon Metaphysics is concerned with much more than just baboons’ social organization—Cheney and Seyfarth aim to fully comprehend the intelligence that underlies it. Using innovative field experiments, the authors learn that for baboons, just as for humans, family and friends hold the key to mitigating the ill effects of grief, stress, and anxiety.
Written with a scientist’s precision and a nature-lover’s eye, Baboon Metaphysics gives us an unprecedented and compelling glimpse into the mind of another species.
“The vivid narrative is like a bush detective story.”—Steven Poole, Guardian
“ Baboon Metaphysics is a distillation of a big chunk of academic lives. . . . It is exactly what such a book should be—full of imaginative experiments, meticulous scholarship, limpid literary style, and above all, truly important questions.”—Alison Jolly, Science
“Cheney and Seyfarth found that for a baboon to get on in life involves a complicated blend of short-term relationships, friendships, and careful status calculations. . . . Needless to say, the ensuing political machinations and convenient romantic dalliances in the quest to become numero uno rival the bard himself.”— Science News
“Cheney and Seyfarth’s enthusiasm is obvious, and their knowledge is vast and expressed with great clarity. All this makes Baboon Metaphysics a captivating read. It will get you thinking—and maybe spur you to travel to Africa to see it all for yourself.”—Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature
“Through ingenious playback experiments . . . Cheney and Seyfarth have worked out many aspects of what baboons used their minds for, along with their limitations. Reading a baboon’s mind affords an excellent grasp of the dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence.”—Nicholas Wade, New York Times
358 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2007
33 people are currently reading
690 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
February 6, 2017
Baboons are a fascinating branch of the family tree. We humans have big brains, complex language, and a staggering collection of tools. Yet, with smaller brains, grunt communication, and no tools, baboons have brilliantly lived sustainably for millions of years — like every other species of animals, except you-know-who.
Long ago, primates began as cute insect eating tree critters. Climate change has always been a mischievous rascal, periodically redefining the rules of survival. Two to four million years ago, east Africa, the “cradle of humankind,” became warmer and dryer. Rainforests shrank, and grasslands expanded. Many forest species went extinct. Chimps and bonobos were lucky. They remained in the forest and managed to adapt to changing conditions.
Baboons are interesting because, like humans, their ancestors moved out of the forest and adapted to savannah-woodland ecosystems. They have managed to survive in a rough neighborhood that includes lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs, crocodiles, and trigger happy farmers. Baboons demonstrate that primates can survive in a dangerous habitat without spears, fire, complex language, or throbbing big brains — and they can do this without causing irreversible degradation.
Baboons evolved in a tropical ecosystem. They don’t need protective clothing or shelters. They have a year-round supply of food, so they don’t need to hibernate, or stash nutrients for lean seasons. Their diet majors in plant foods, including palm nuts, jackal berries, figs, and sausage fruit. They also consume animal foods like insects, rodents, fish, shellfish, hares, birds, vervet monkeys, antelopes, and human infants.
Anyway, my muse gave me a dope slap and told me to pay more attention to baboons, so I read Baboon Metaphysics, by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth. The authors have joined the animal intelligence crusade, and are working to discredit the common misconception that nonhuman animals are little more than mindless stimulus-response automatons. Their research was performed by intruding into wild baboon communities and performing annoying experiments on them.
Modern humans have been lobotomized by their extreme disconnection from the living world. If folks spent their days in continuous contact with wild animals, no research would be needed to certify their obvious intelligence.
Metaphysics is defined as “the part of philosophy that is about understanding existence and knowledge.” This is much like intelligence, which is intellect, the faculty of understanding. Cheney is a biologist, and Seyfarth is a psychologist. Their objective is to persuade readers that nonhuman animals, like baboons, supplement their instincts with aspects of genuine intelligence.
My focus is ecological sustainability, and I see “animal intelligence” from a different perspective. All wild nonhuman animals adapt to their ecosystem and go with the flow. They have lived sustainably for millions of years. What could possibly be more intelligent? It doesn’t seem intelligent to knowingly destroy the ecosystem, and radically destabilize the climate, whilst stumbling around staring at glowing screen thingies.
Here are three reasons why there aren’t seven-point-something billion baboons in the world. (1) They didn’t exterminate most of their predators. (2) They made no effort to increase the volume of food produced in their habitat via soil mining; they adapted to the wild food supply provided by nature. (3) They lived as evolution had prepared them to live, wisely avoiding the toxic tar baby of innovation and technology — the express lane to extinction. Birds evolved to fly; baboons did not.
All nonhuman species live in accordance with these three principles, whilst the human population continues to grow explosively. It is out of control because modern folks generally lack foresight, and the wisdom to practice mindful self-restraint. They lack the intelligence to comprehend the ecological foolishness of relentless campaigns of predator extermination. Naturally, living in vast crowds conjures a new class of predators — infectious diseases and degenerative diseases.
Meanwhile, baboons have no need for wisdom. They enjoy the management services provided by Big Mama Nature. Predators happily keep their groups stable. In the great dance of life, we all feed one another. The authors note, “Predation accounts for the vast majority of deaths among male, female, and juvenile baboons.” Baboons do not spend the last years of their lives decaying; they feed the lions.
Baboons intelligently avoid predators by sleeping in trees, or at the top of steep cliffs. In daylight hours, they return to the savannah to forage. (YouTube has many fascinating baboon documentaries.) Males are much larger than females, and when predators visit, it is their responsibility to rush in and be as loud and belligerent as possible. Males have large canine teeth, and predators are careful to avoid being wounded; they prefer sneaky low-risk surprise attacks. Males hold off predators whilst the females and young try to escape. The lives of males are nasty, brutish, and short. Females can live 20 years.
Powerful aggressive males encourage group survival. The alpha male baboon is the primary sperm donor in each group. His evolutionary mission is to father as many offspring as possible, but his time in office is usually brief. A new alpha, on average, is master of the harem for just seven to eight months. Consequently, he promptly tries to kill the offspring of all lactating females, so these mothers will be freed to produce offspring with his genes. This infanticide custom provides a secondary control on population growth, and encourages the production of badass defender daddies.
Like many other species, baboon society is hierarchical. There are many levels of rank in the group, and every individual knows his or her current position. Among female baboons, ranking is fairly stable. They spend their entire lives in the group of their birth. Males, on the other hand, migrate to other groups as young adults. The arriving young lads are a threat to the status of the current alpha. Challenges usually involve macho posturing, loud shrieks, and high-speed chases — not injurious beatings. An individual male’s rank can change frequently.
Paul Shepard once asserted that ground monkeys (like baboons) are “the most aggressively status-conscious creatures on Earth.” I wonder if humans are even more so. Baboons play the status game without rubbishing their ecosystem. Modern humans devote their entire lives to hoarding manufactured status trinkets. Countless landfills are piled deep with discarded trinkets, thrown out to make space for our newer, bigger, flashier, trendier foolishness. We cannot wean ourselves from habitual car driving, because travelling intelligently would take a huge toll on our social status (sorry kids!).
We are not doomed by faulty genes. We’re doomed by mindlessly marching to the beat of screwy beliefs, but belief is voluntary. We do not have to shop till we drop. Thinking outside the box is a sign of intelligence. It’s OK to question consensus reality. It’s OK to stand strong against the powerful currents of our insane culture. It’s OK to leap over the fence and pursue a meaningful and rewarding life. This may be the only life you ever live. Live well!
Long ago, primates began as cute insect eating tree critters. Climate change has always been a mischievous rascal, periodically redefining the rules of survival. Two to four million years ago, east Africa, the “cradle of humankind,” became warmer and dryer. Rainforests shrank, and grasslands expanded. Many forest species went extinct. Chimps and bonobos were lucky. They remained in the forest and managed to adapt to changing conditions.
Baboons are interesting because, like humans, their ancestors moved out of the forest and adapted to savannah-woodland ecosystems. They have managed to survive in a rough neighborhood that includes lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs, crocodiles, and trigger happy farmers. Baboons demonstrate that primates can survive in a dangerous habitat without spears, fire, complex language, or throbbing big brains — and they can do this without causing irreversible degradation.
Baboons evolved in a tropical ecosystem. They don’t need protective clothing or shelters. They have a year-round supply of food, so they don’t need to hibernate, or stash nutrients for lean seasons. Their diet majors in plant foods, including palm nuts, jackal berries, figs, and sausage fruit. They also consume animal foods like insects, rodents, fish, shellfish, hares, birds, vervet monkeys, antelopes, and human infants.
Anyway, my muse gave me a dope slap and told me to pay more attention to baboons, so I read Baboon Metaphysics, by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth. The authors have joined the animal intelligence crusade, and are working to discredit the common misconception that nonhuman animals are little more than mindless stimulus-response automatons. Their research was performed by intruding into wild baboon communities and performing annoying experiments on them.
Modern humans have been lobotomized by their extreme disconnection from the living world. If folks spent their days in continuous contact with wild animals, no research would be needed to certify their obvious intelligence.
Metaphysics is defined as “the part of philosophy that is about understanding existence and knowledge.” This is much like intelligence, which is intellect, the faculty of understanding. Cheney is a biologist, and Seyfarth is a psychologist. Their objective is to persuade readers that nonhuman animals, like baboons, supplement their instincts with aspects of genuine intelligence.
My focus is ecological sustainability, and I see “animal intelligence” from a different perspective. All wild nonhuman animals adapt to their ecosystem and go with the flow. They have lived sustainably for millions of years. What could possibly be more intelligent? It doesn’t seem intelligent to knowingly destroy the ecosystem, and radically destabilize the climate, whilst stumbling around staring at glowing screen thingies.
Here are three reasons why there aren’t seven-point-something billion baboons in the world. (1) They didn’t exterminate most of their predators. (2) They made no effort to increase the volume of food produced in their habitat via soil mining; they adapted to the wild food supply provided by nature. (3) They lived as evolution had prepared them to live, wisely avoiding the toxic tar baby of innovation and technology — the express lane to extinction. Birds evolved to fly; baboons did not.
All nonhuman species live in accordance with these three principles, whilst the human population continues to grow explosively. It is out of control because modern folks generally lack foresight, and the wisdom to practice mindful self-restraint. They lack the intelligence to comprehend the ecological foolishness of relentless campaigns of predator extermination. Naturally, living in vast crowds conjures a new class of predators — infectious diseases and degenerative diseases.
Meanwhile, baboons have no need for wisdom. They enjoy the management services provided by Big Mama Nature. Predators happily keep their groups stable. In the great dance of life, we all feed one another. The authors note, “Predation accounts for the vast majority of deaths among male, female, and juvenile baboons.” Baboons do not spend the last years of their lives decaying; they feed the lions.
Baboons intelligently avoid predators by sleeping in trees, or at the top of steep cliffs. In daylight hours, they return to the savannah to forage. (YouTube has many fascinating baboon documentaries.) Males are much larger than females, and when predators visit, it is their responsibility to rush in and be as loud and belligerent as possible. Males have large canine teeth, and predators are careful to avoid being wounded; they prefer sneaky low-risk surprise attacks. Males hold off predators whilst the females and young try to escape. The lives of males are nasty, brutish, and short. Females can live 20 years.
Powerful aggressive males encourage group survival. The alpha male baboon is the primary sperm donor in each group. His evolutionary mission is to father as many offspring as possible, but his time in office is usually brief. A new alpha, on average, is master of the harem for just seven to eight months. Consequently, he promptly tries to kill the offspring of all lactating females, so these mothers will be freed to produce offspring with his genes. This infanticide custom provides a secondary control on population growth, and encourages the production of badass defender daddies.
Like many other species, baboon society is hierarchical. There are many levels of rank in the group, and every individual knows his or her current position. Among female baboons, ranking is fairly stable. They spend their entire lives in the group of their birth. Males, on the other hand, migrate to other groups as young adults. The arriving young lads are a threat to the status of the current alpha. Challenges usually involve macho posturing, loud shrieks, and high-speed chases — not injurious beatings. An individual male’s rank can change frequently.
Paul Shepard once asserted that ground monkeys (like baboons) are “the most aggressively status-conscious creatures on Earth.” I wonder if humans are even more so. Baboons play the status game without rubbishing their ecosystem. Modern humans devote their entire lives to hoarding manufactured status trinkets. Countless landfills are piled deep with discarded trinkets, thrown out to make space for our newer, bigger, flashier, trendier foolishness. We cannot wean ourselves from habitual car driving, because travelling intelligently would take a huge toll on our social status (sorry kids!).
We are not doomed by faulty genes. We’re doomed by mindlessly marching to the beat of screwy beliefs, but belief is voluntary. We do not have to shop till we drop. Thinking outside the box is a sign of intelligence. It’s OK to question consensus reality. It’s OK to stand strong against the powerful currents of our insane culture. It’s OK to leap over the fence and pursue a meaningful and rewarding life. This may be the only life you ever live. Live well!
October 11, 2025
Once I got past the first few pages, in which the author showed off her academic credentials, I became enamored. It's good science, but much of it is written in a narrative, friendly style that seems to belie that. It also has photos, though they are difficult for me to decipher. Lots of notes, an index. Rather small font.
So many bookdarts.
"There is little to recommend the hippo."
"... over time a male's successive friendships transform him into a Pied Piper, and he is accompanied wherever he goes by a troop of tumbling and twirling youngsters. For an old, slow-moving, low-ranking male, it is as good a way as any to finish out his years."
"Instead of analyzing beliefs and desires, animals use past performance as a guide to future behavior."
"current neuroanatomical evidence predicts that monkeys and apes, like young children, might be able to represent simple mental states like emotions and intentions even if they cannot recognize more complex ones like knowledge and beliefs."
"Perhaps because they could not attribute mental states different from their own to others, monkeys and apes also seem not to expect to be informed or deceived. For instance, chimpanzees who remain silent when they find a fruiting tree are not punished by those who arrive later."
"Even an egocentric baboon has to know that it is not always about her."
"Vervets have a kind of a laser-beam acuity; they make good psychologists but poor naturalists."
"Baboons and other animals excel at reading and predicting behavior. The jury is still out on whether they also excel at reading and predicting simple mental states." ... "The lack of empathy is puzzling. It is as if baboons do not respond to a threat unless it has the potential to have an immediate impact on them. The indirect impact is not recognized."
"Whenever an animal can gain a selective advantage by performing a particular behavior, natural selection will simultaneously favor both the behavior itself and whatever morphology, physiology, or cognitive operations are needed to support it.... [Since] the ability to represent, organize, and classify other individual's relationships enables baboons to perform the mental calculations necessary for negotiating their social world, natural selection will favor whatever skills in communication, cognition, and neural machinery allow them to do so."
"The social world is inherently dynamic. By contrast, the physical world - at least for baboons - is comparatively static. Unlike humans, baboons do not look at their environment and ask "How can I change it?" They do not wonder about how they could make food more accessible, easier to process, or more frequently available. If they catch a baby Impala they will eat it, but they never think about how they might devise a trap or a new hunting technique that would make catching an Impala easier or more predictable. They lack the insight to imagine a different world."
"Even very young children with only an implicit understanding of other people's minds are strongly motivated to share their ideas and empathize with others.... This motivation to share ideas and emotions with others almost certainly played a crucial role in the evolution of language, tool use, and culture. We will leave speculation about the selective pressures that might have favored high levels of cooperation in early hominids to others."
" Thought came first; speech and language appeared later, as its expression."
So many bookdarts.
"There is little to recommend the hippo."
"... over time a male's successive friendships transform him into a Pied Piper, and he is accompanied wherever he goes by a troop of tumbling and twirling youngsters. For an old, slow-moving, low-ranking male, it is as good a way as any to finish out his years."
"Instead of analyzing beliefs and desires, animals use past performance as a guide to future behavior."
"current neuroanatomical evidence predicts that monkeys and apes, like young children, might be able to represent simple mental states like emotions and intentions even if they cannot recognize more complex ones like knowledge and beliefs."
"Perhaps because they could not attribute mental states different from their own to others, monkeys and apes also seem not to expect to be informed or deceived. For instance, chimpanzees who remain silent when they find a fruiting tree are not punished by those who arrive later."
"Even an egocentric baboon has to know that it is not always about her."
"Vervets have a kind of a laser-beam acuity; they make good psychologists but poor naturalists."
"Baboons and other animals excel at reading and predicting behavior. The jury is still out on whether they also excel at reading and predicting simple mental states." ... "The lack of empathy is puzzling. It is as if baboons do not respond to a threat unless it has the potential to have an immediate impact on them. The indirect impact is not recognized."
"Whenever an animal can gain a selective advantage by performing a particular behavior, natural selection will simultaneously favor both the behavior itself and whatever morphology, physiology, or cognitive operations are needed to support it.... [Since] the ability to represent, organize, and classify other individual's relationships enables baboons to perform the mental calculations necessary for negotiating their social world, natural selection will favor whatever skills in communication, cognition, and neural machinery allow them to do so."
"The social world is inherently dynamic. By contrast, the physical world - at least for baboons - is comparatively static. Unlike humans, baboons do not look at their environment and ask "How can I change it?" They do not wonder about how they could make food more accessible, easier to process, or more frequently available. If they catch a baby Impala they will eat it, but they never think about how they might devise a trap or a new hunting technique that would make catching an Impala easier or more predictable. They lack the insight to imagine a different world."
"Even very young children with only an implicit understanding of other people's minds are strongly motivated to share their ideas and empathize with others.... This motivation to share ideas and emotions with others almost certainly played a crucial role in the evolution of language, tool use, and culture. We will leave speculation about the selective pressures that might have favored high levels of cooperation in early hominids to others."
" Thought came first; speech and language appeared later, as its expression."
September 13, 2024
Such a cool book. I have a weird perspective on it because in 2009, 2011, and 2022, and 2023 I read two chapters from the back, “Communication” and “Precursors to Language,” first for a class I took in grad school, then for a class I taught in grad school, and then for an updated version of the same class at my new job. So at this point, I can almost recite them, but I was missing the greater context, so I decided to read the whole thing, and yet I still read those two when I got back to them. It is, therefore, hard for me to comment on the book as a whole and very easy for me to comment on the linguistically relevant sections. But I’ll try...
From my perspective, it’s a great pop sciënce book: unapologetically sciëntific and consummately cited, but also not afraid to make metaphors and connections so the non-primatologist (like me!) can understand. They take you step-by-step thru all aspects of baboon life and sociëty, ending on the intriguing notion that the mechanisms of the complex rules of grammar are based on our need for an ability to understand a complex hiërarchical sociëty. Because I’ve concentrated so much on those (almost) last two chapters, it seems more a book about communication and language than metaphysics in general, but it was a good hook anyway, and of course if I’d read it from start to finish, perhaps I'd feel the title was more deserved.
From my perspective, it’s a great pop sciënce book: unapologetically sciëntific and consummately cited, but also not afraid to make metaphors and connections so the non-primatologist (like me!) can understand. They take you step-by-step thru all aspects of baboon life and sociëty, ending on the intriguing notion that the mechanisms of the complex rules of grammar are based on our need for an ability to understand a complex hiërarchical sociëty. Because I’ve concentrated so much on those (almost) last two chapters, it seems more a book about communication and language than metaphysics in general, but it was a good hook anyway, and of course if I’d read it from start to finish, perhaps I'd feel the title was more deserved.
November 8, 2009
The authors believe their scientific work substantiates Darwin's often quoted statement that "He who understands [the?:]baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke." "Baboon Metaphysics" anchors human language in pre-human primate cognitive structures that were formed by natural selection. Survival in complex baboon societies is dependent on negotiating successfully relationships that are driven by rank. Baboons needed to "clump" sounds into multi-modal meaning. Thus a grunt from another baboon was not just a sound, but a sound that comes from a specific baboon who was subordinate or dominant, and it was a sound that indicated intent. The sound is rich in meaning and the authors refer to this non-verbal content as "the language of thought". It is upon this cognitive foundation from our not so distant ancestors that our verbal language is built upon and articulates. Relating this "social origins of language" theory back to Locke, the authors acknowledge that pre-verbal cognition is filled with stimuli from the outside. But then the authors jump over to the Kantian a priori (innate, non-emperical) forms of knowing. Baboons organize information into cognitive structures that evaluate the meanng of stimuli in relationship to survival, well-being and reproduction, and direct behavior to respond appropriately. The authors' work is another argument to demonstrate the essential continuity we have with the animal world and, specifically, with the common ancestor we shared with our baboon cousins.
October 19, 2022
An ode to the beauty and splendor of the scientific method. This is a top book for me that I will recommend to and reference from for the rest of my life. As Cheney and Seyfarth recount tales of their years spent observing baboons in the Okavango Delta along with contemporaneous studies from fellow scientists, they begin to paint a familiar yet distinct vision of what social lives look like. These lives being the extremely psychologically demanding experiences of baboons. Distant relatives from a common ancestor roughly 30 million years ago, there is much to learn about ourselves from baboons. But there are also many traits and features of being a baboon that are unfamiliar and/or less advanced; particularly their inability to speak and convey complex information and express or clearly perceive theory of mind to others. I wish more aspects of our world were handled with as much love as the authors have done so in this work. It would certainly make learning much more enjoyable!
November 20, 2022
Good book for being assigned for a class!
September 12, 2009
The team of Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth has collaborated on numerous publications, including a fine book, "How Monkeys See the World." This represents an ambitious addition to their body of work. A takeoff point is a quotation from Charles Darwin's notebooks, from 1838 (Page 1): "Origin of man now proved--Metaphysic must flourish--He who understands baboon would do more toward metaphysics than Locke." The authors use the Cambridge English Dictionary to define metaphysics (Page 2): "the part of philosophy that is about understanding existence and knowledge."
The authors have been studying baboons for many years. This book summarizes much of their work and indicates the ingenious experiments that they have devised to assess baboons' thought processes and to explore if they possess something like a "theory of mind." They consider, in the process, the extent of "social intelligence" in baboons. At the outset, they propose two general points that guide their analysis of "baboon metaphysics": (1) natural selection leads to a brain for any species that are specialized for the relevant survival needs; (2) baboons have great expertise in navigating social life, since they live in relatively complex social systems.
Key chapters in this volume:
Chapter 3: The dangerous world in which baboons live is well portrayed. Predators pose a danger. Another unfortunate factor of baboon life is infanticide. If a new male enters a troop and becomes dominant, for instance, he may try to kill all young baboons. In this manner, the new male is in a position to begin reproducing very soon with female baboons who lost their infants; he is able, as a result, to increase the amount of his genetic material in the troop through siring his own infants.
Chapters 4 and 5 are critical, as they lay out the very different social worlds of male and female baboons. In either sex, dominance hierarchies are central. Males strive to attain the alpha ranking, that is, being the most dominant male in the troop. Male hierarchies are unstable, leading to considerable social stress. Females' hierarchies are more complex and more stable. Among females, their lineage is important. Each lineage has its own ranking, so one is either born into a top ranking, middle ranking, or low ranking family. Successfully managing to thrive in this social order calls for a high level of social skills.
Baboons, as Chapter 6 emphasizes, have quite good "social knowledge." The understanding of how baboon society works is based on (Pages 118-119) ". . .an innate predisposition to recognize other individuals' ranks and social relationships." Chapter 7 builds on this with a discussion of the social intelligence of baboons, with the authors emphasizing the criticality of baboons' understanding of how to navigate complex social life in a way that facilitates their survival and successful reproduction. The chapter concludes with an interesting discussion of how baboons' social intelligence differs from that of other species, as a result of the evolutionary demands on baboons.
Chapter 8 focuses on the extent to which baboons have a "theory of mind," that is, understanding of the mental states of other baboons. The authors conclude that there might be (page 197) "vague intuition about other animals' intentions," but that there is nothing like a well formed ability among these animals to understand intentions and motivations of others.
The volume concludes in Chapter 12 with a summary discussion of "baboon metaphysics" and with speculation about the relevance of their research for understanding humans. With respect to the former, they conclude that baboons demonstrate that some animals can live in complex societies with a theory of mind and without language--if their mental abilities allow for "making sense" of how to navigate their complex social world. The latter discussion notes what differences could lead to humans having a theory of mind that baboons do not possess.
All in all, a remarkable book. It has value in helping us to understand baboons in their own terms; it helps think about the position of humans in nature and why we are unique (as all species are unique); it provokes reflection on the ability to reflect on oneself and others and try to understand why we behave as we do. Nice touches abound, as illustrated by a charming reference to characters from Jane Austen's novels to make points about individual baboons' behavior.
This is an ambitious work, and there will be questions. The authors seem to overreach when exploring a theory of mind. It's almost as if they are using a human orientation to study baboons rather than focusing on baboons themselves. In some ways, I'm not sure that the theory of baboons' minds is so crucial as the authors do. The social intelligence part of the picture seems to me more important. Finally, using the philosophical term metaphysics in a baboon context may represent another reach too far.
Nonetheless, these are relatively minor points. The bottom line? A terrific book. . . .
The authors have been studying baboons for many years. This book summarizes much of their work and indicates the ingenious experiments that they have devised to assess baboons' thought processes and to explore if they possess something like a "theory of mind." They consider, in the process, the extent of "social intelligence" in baboons. At the outset, they propose two general points that guide their analysis of "baboon metaphysics": (1) natural selection leads to a brain for any species that are specialized for the relevant survival needs; (2) baboons have great expertise in navigating social life, since they live in relatively complex social systems.
Key chapters in this volume:
Chapter 3: The dangerous world in which baboons live is well portrayed. Predators pose a danger. Another unfortunate factor of baboon life is infanticide. If a new male enters a troop and becomes dominant, for instance, he may try to kill all young baboons. In this manner, the new male is in a position to begin reproducing very soon with female baboons who lost their infants; he is able, as a result, to increase the amount of his genetic material in the troop through siring his own infants.
Chapters 4 and 5 are critical, as they lay out the very different social worlds of male and female baboons. In either sex, dominance hierarchies are central. Males strive to attain the alpha ranking, that is, being the most dominant male in the troop. Male hierarchies are unstable, leading to considerable social stress. Females' hierarchies are more complex and more stable. Among females, their lineage is important. Each lineage has its own ranking, so one is either born into a top ranking, middle ranking, or low ranking family. Successfully managing to thrive in this social order calls for a high level of social skills.
Baboons, as Chapter 6 emphasizes, have quite good "social knowledge." The understanding of how baboon society works is based on (Pages 118-119) ". . .an innate predisposition to recognize other individuals' ranks and social relationships." Chapter 7 builds on this with a discussion of the social intelligence of baboons, with the authors emphasizing the criticality of baboons' understanding of how to navigate complex social life in a way that facilitates their survival and successful reproduction. The chapter concludes with an interesting discussion of how baboons' social intelligence differs from that of other species, as a result of the evolutionary demands on baboons.
Chapter 8 focuses on the extent to which baboons have a "theory of mind," that is, understanding of the mental states of other baboons. The authors conclude that there might be (page 197) "vague intuition about other animals' intentions," but that there is nothing like a well formed ability among these animals to understand intentions and motivations of others.
The volume concludes in Chapter 12 with a summary discussion of "baboon metaphysics" and with speculation about the relevance of their research for understanding humans. With respect to the former, they conclude that baboons demonstrate that some animals can live in complex societies with a theory of mind and without language--if their mental abilities allow for "making sense" of how to navigate their complex social world. The latter discussion notes what differences could lead to humans having a theory of mind that baboons do not possess.
All in all, a remarkable book. It has value in helping us to understand baboons in their own terms; it helps think about the position of humans in nature and why we are unique (as all species are unique); it provokes reflection on the ability to reflect on oneself and others and try to understand why we behave as we do. Nice touches abound, as illustrated by a charming reference to characters from Jane Austen's novels to make points about individual baboons' behavior.
This is an ambitious work, and there will be questions. The authors seem to overreach when exploring a theory of mind. It's almost as if they are using a human orientation to study baboons rather than focusing on baboons themselves. In some ways, I'm not sure that the theory of baboons' minds is so crucial as the authors do. The social intelligence part of the picture seems to me more important. Finally, using the philosophical term metaphysics in a baboon context may represent another reach too far.
Nonetheless, these are relatively minor points. The bottom line? A terrific book. . . .
August 2, 2007
This is a really fascinating book, well worth reading. As I wrote previously, it's by two primate researchers who have done some very extensive studies of baboons and are assessing the results of those studies to get at the question of whether baboons possess intelligence, self awareness, awareness of others, and any kind of ethical system. Their conclusion is that baboons are highly intelligent, in that they're able to comprehend and respond to a very complex set of symbols in their world. Though there's no proving such a thing, they suggest that the evidence points towards baboons being able to work with abstract concepts, particularly in the area of social behavior and comprehension. Their conclusion is that baboons can understand a far more complex set of symbols than they can convey, however, precisely because they have no conception of others' consciousness. They don't see other baboons as having different memories and beliefs, and so there couldn't possibly be a need to convey information to other baboons, which is, Cheney and Seyfarth speculate, why there's such a large discrepancy between the complexity of the symbol set baboons can apparently master and the set they ever actually produce, especially in the wild. C&S argue that baboons are able to master a complex set of symbols that are related to their social relationships, and that the social symbols bear more than a passing resemblance to the symbols of language. This is not the same as saying that baboons have language, mind you--only that they comprehend a set of symbols that share lots of characteristics of language symbols (interchangeability, extensibility, and even something essentially like syntax). This leads C&S to argue that the kind of intelligence that allows for complex social relationships may have been a precursor to language in our common ancestor, which is an interesting idea.
My only complaint about this book is that as they try to strike a balance between a layperson audience and a professional audience, they hew a bit too much towards the professional side, which causes them to extremely careful about explaining their methodology, describing their results in a very large amount of detail, backing up what they say with many references to other studies, and proving lots of caveats. I respect their willingness to lay out their stuff carefully, but it gets burdensome as a lay reader. I'd probably prefer a lower academic standard in the text itself (have it reserved for a special section at the end or something), and in the body of the book give themselves a bit more liberty to speculate about some areas--the possible significance of their research.
My only complaint about this book is that as they try to strike a balance between a layperson audience and a professional audience, they hew a bit too much towards the professional side, which causes them to extremely careful about explaining their methodology, describing their results in a very large amount of detail, backing up what they say with many references to other studies, and proving lots of caveats. I respect their willingness to lay out their stuff carefully, but it gets burdensome as a lay reader. I'd probably prefer a lower academic standard in the text itself (have it reserved for a special section at the end or something), and in the body of the book give themselves a bit more liberty to speculate about some areas--the possible significance of their research.
August 29, 2022
I had high hopes for this book, and it started off decently well. The core content is pretty interesting and I'm happy to have read about social dynamics and communication in baboons, and the comparison with other primates and other mammals.
But my suspicions stemming from the length of the book unfortunately turned out to be well-founded. The book is teeming with repetitions - similar claims, repeated arguments, or near-identical anecdotes given at the same level of detail each time, rather than summarizing them briefly in reference to previously described ones. After the first half of the book, I became weary reading it, and realized I'm resorting to skimming at times, and yet if I'd more carefully re-read, I'd realize there was truly nothing new gained from that page or paragraph. I find the book really unfortunately structured and in need for some pretty strong trimming, or else providing a more engaging way to go through all it wants to say.
It is also unclear whether it wants to be a piece of more serious scientific writing or not. The details and the way individual experiments and observations are described makes it seem like the authors want to be rigorous, but there are no visual representations to aid the narrative, and very few meaningful quantifications are given. I'd prefer it either to be a lighter text without so much detail in describing observations, or if the detail is given, for it to be represented in a more parseable way. The conclusions also tend to be quite over the top. The book keeps repeating that "we can't really know as there is no experimental data", but then keeps making these arguments. Over and over again.
Was an ok read overall, but if I had indications about how the book is written, I'd resort to skimming more readily and not try to read it with the degree of attention I gave it.
But my suspicions stemming from the length of the book unfortunately turned out to be well-founded. The book is teeming with repetitions - similar claims, repeated arguments, or near-identical anecdotes given at the same level of detail each time, rather than summarizing them briefly in reference to previously described ones. After the first half of the book, I became weary reading it, and realized I'm resorting to skimming at times, and yet if I'd more carefully re-read, I'd realize there was truly nothing new gained from that page or paragraph. I find the book really unfortunately structured and in need for some pretty strong trimming, or else providing a more engaging way to go through all it wants to say.
It is also unclear whether it wants to be a piece of more serious scientific writing or not. The details and the way individual experiments and observations are described makes it seem like the authors want to be rigorous, but there are no visual representations to aid the narrative, and very few meaningful quantifications are given. I'd prefer it either to be a lighter text without so much detail in describing observations, or if the detail is given, for it to be represented in a more parseable way. The conclusions also tend to be quite over the top. The book keeps repeating that "we can't really know as there is no experimental data", but then keeps making these arguments. Over and over again.
Was an ok read overall, but if I had indications about how the book is written, I'd resort to skimming more readily and not try to read it with the degree of attention I gave it.
January 6, 2021
I haven't read it, but reject modernity, return to monke ACK ACK ACK AK
Read
October 13, 2024What reason would you have to read a book like this one? If you're a general-interest reader, I'd gently guide you to Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir. The Cheneys cite Sapolsky several times in this work, so you're not stepping down the level of authority by making the switch, but you will be dramatically stepping up the humor and fun.
The title Baboon Metaphysics is not cute and funny, it's literal. They are literally attempting to test out how much baboons know about the their own minds and the minds of other beings. The tests to ascertain these facts are listed in the requisite detail here. The authors make their conclusions. I found some of the conclusions convincing, others somewhat less convincing.
In general it's hard for me to shake my mistrust of studies of behavior. The implicit assumption that we know with certainty what another being is attempting to accomplish feels inherently fraught. We end up looking for actions and reactions that we expect, on a timeframe that we believe would be appropriate, based on the limited amount of information that we're able to observe.
I'm not questioning the professionalism or even the conclusions of much of the work. It sounds right. But I just wonder how much an alien could glean of human interiority with studies of similar design. I think inherently we all feel that a total alien would be unable to couch fake social interactions in a context that elicits genuine and representative reactions.
The authors address this consideration and spend a lot of time entertaining alternate interpretations of the information that they're gathering. It's the right thing to do, but the reader is constantly reminded that nothing seems to ever really prove anything, because we don't know for sure what the baboons are thinking and feeling.
The title Baboon Metaphysics is not cute and funny, it's literal. They are literally attempting to test out how much baboons know about the their own minds and the minds of other beings. The tests to ascertain these facts are listed in the requisite detail here. The authors make their conclusions. I found some of the conclusions convincing, others somewhat less convincing.
In general it's hard for me to shake my mistrust of studies of behavior. The implicit assumption that we know with certainty what another being is attempting to accomplish feels inherently fraught. We end up looking for actions and reactions that we expect, on a timeframe that we believe would be appropriate, based on the limited amount of information that we're able to observe.
I'm not questioning the professionalism or even the conclusions of much of the work. It sounds right. But I just wonder how much an alien could glean of human interiority with studies of similar design. I think inherently we all feel that a total alien would be unable to couch fake social interactions in a context that elicits genuine and representative reactions.
The authors address this consideration and spend a lot of time entertaining alternate interpretations of the information that they're gathering. It's the right thing to do, but the reader is constantly reminded that nothing seems to ever really prove anything, because we don't know for sure what the baboons are thinking and feeling.
March 18, 2025
Baboon Metaphysics and Others Minds both explore the evolution of intelligence and consciousness. Baboon Metaphysics compares humans with baboons (common ancestors 60 million years ago), while Other Minds compares humans with cephalopods (common ancestors 300 million years ago). The cephalopods (octopus & squid) represent convergent evolution where distantly related organisms evolve similar traits, while the baboons represent an insight into the development of language. Two books well worth reading.
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20... for Omega Cats Press books and book recommendations.
For my extended notes: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2025/...
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20... for Omega Cats Press books and book recommendations.
For my extended notes: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2025/...
March 19, 2020
A great book that I didn’t think I’d enjoy nearly as much as I thought I would have from reading the title.
Not only does it give great explanations of animal cognition for the everyday reader but it often made me laugh at points which is great for a book which sometimes deals with heavy subjects. I now have a much greater respect for baboons which are so often on the sidelines of nature documentaries!
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in philosophy and the evolution of human thought.
Not only does it give great explanations of animal cognition for the everyday reader but it often made me laugh at points which is great for a book which sometimes deals with heavy subjects. I now have a much greater respect for baboons which are so often on the sidelines of nature documentaries!
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in philosophy and the evolution of human thought.
August 8, 2020
A fascinating subject but the book itself is quite dry and academic. Of course that might be your thing. If you just want to know what these two scientists think about the mind of the baboon and what it tells us about our own mind, read the two last chapters. The gist of their hypothesis is that complex and dynamic social relations drove the evolution of primate brains and created a "language of thought", which enabled humans to build a language of speech on top of it, since the structure and syntax (causality, nouns, verbs, etc.) were already there but in a preverbal form.
February 19, 2022
Amazing book, really well written. Perfect balance of educating, exploring the science and theory and entertainment for the reader. The book is also just really nice to hold and read from, interesting textures.
Last chapter or 2 really bring it all together and make some very compelling arguments.
One almost negative:
At times it felt a bit repetitive as most behavioural experiments follow similar methods and about baboons but the reward of this has been a greater ability to come up with my own experiments!
Last chapter or 2 really bring it all together and make some very compelling arguments.
One almost negative:
At times it felt a bit repetitive as most behavioural experiments follow similar methods and about baboons but the reward of this has been a greater ability to come up with my own experiments!
September 24, 2023
Though I do find it amusing to think about these scientists in the field examining the social habits of baboons for years on end, it seems like many of the observations and conclusions in the book could just as easily be attributed to mere coincidence and speculation. I now know much more about baboons than I did before. I also now know why I didn’t know that much about them before as they are not a particularly inspiring animal.
September 11, 2017
Goes deep into the human mind as well as that of the primate.
July 29, 2021
2.5 stars. Treads a shaky line between informative and pretensious
November 4, 2022
Often fascinating, frustratingly inconclusive, and utterly necessary.
December 12, 2023
Moral of the book: monkeys do not talk because they do not want to. Cool.
May 29, 2024
This book made me fall in love with baboons! I didn’t realize quite how intelligent they truly are and I love them even more now because of it.
January 2, 2012
The authors pose intriguing questions about baboons, their mind, the origins of language, mental states, etc. However, the methodology they use is quite limited--this is not a criticism towards their work, there is not much more one can do under their circumstances. Most experiments are about playing a few baboon grunts from the bushes and observing the immediate reaction or measuring certain hormones in the feces on the following days. No matter how clever the experiment design is, I doubt that it is possible to draw far-reaching conclusions about baboon metaphysics from the outcome. There are two chapters on communication and language precursors but I am not sure I learned much from them. First, the authors are quite cautious when making claims which is totally understandable given the methodology. Second, they refer to many other language-related studies involving children and other primates but never make it clear which theories they find most promising. Third, baboons do not have grammar or recursion, they only exchange a very limited number of signals so is there really enough material then to talk about language precursors? Overall, it was a nice read, some anecdotes are charming and make you respect baboons and the researchers.
July 29, 2011
It's amazing how complex baboon social structures are and the capabilities they have to navigate the frequent changes in relationships that occur. The detailed descriptions of experimental methods employed to determine what is going on in the heads of the baboons are impressive, but a bit heavy going unless you are interested in this for academic reasons. The stories about how humans have used baboons to work with them are fascinating and the insights into their capabilities narrows the gap between human and animal minds, but the read is a bit tedious at times. Overall, the fascination outweighs the tedium.
April 15, 2012
Scientific tome which cites extensive literature search. Couple lived in isolation beside the Votswana's Okavango swamp. They followed baboon troops daily, amid the predator rich environment of snakes, big cats, elephants and Hippos. Their emphasis was to do experiments (playback audio) to determine similarities and differences between this species of monkey and ourselves in social consciousness, language and empathy. One big difference was the lack of apparent understanding in the baboon that others might feel something different. One big similarity is their feeling of grief for a lost loved one.
March 6, 2020
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
Want to read
March 27, 2009This book came to my attention having been chosen as runner up in the oddest title contest in the UK but then when I started reading about it, I decided to add it to my "to read" shelf. I did a lot of reading about primates when putting together a nonfiction collection on primates for children for an assignment and the interest hasn't left me!
March 26, 2012
More readable than their previous book, Baboon Metaphysics is a brilliant analysis of the cognitive abilities (and worldview) of monkeys as contrasted with that of people. I found it quite enjoyable, and specific chapters (Social Knowledge, Theory of Mind, Communication) are excellent (if monkey-centric) reviews of the comparative literature in these fields circa 2006.
October 14, 2013
This delightful book examines in minute and hilarious detail the complex social lives of Okavango Delta baboons and catalogs the authors' carefully devised tests to tease out the inner workings of the baboon mind. Their arguments are fascinating and compelling, and their lively writing often made me laugh aloud.
September 3, 2008
A look at baboon society with an eye toward a theory of mind. A decent book, but a bit repetitive. The last couple of chapters on language theory seemed a departure from the approach of the rest of the book. Overall, worth the read, but be prepared to skim some parts.
May 22, 2012
A simply wonderful book that clearly demonstrates that primates fully understand every detail of their complex social ecology, and all that information is packed inside each of a mere fourteen verbal expressions.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews