Our challenge is to understand animal minds for their own sake, not as inferior human minds. The latter idea comes from the classical view of human nature, which implies that chimps and other primates are less evolved, diminished versions of ourselves. They’re not. They’re adapted to the ecological niche that they live in. Chimps have to forage for food and modern humans largely do not, so a chimp brain is wired to identify and remember details, not to build mental similarities.53
