Folk Physics for Apes: The Chimpanzee's Theory of How the World Works (Paperback)

by Daniel J. Povinelli (Author) "This book is the result of a five-year project designed to explore how chimpanzees conceive of the physics that underlies their use and construction of..." (more)
Key Phrases: David Hume, Experiment Outstanding, Nicholas Humphrey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Daniel Povinelli and his colleagues in Folk Physics describe 27 meticulously conducted and previously unpublished experiments designed to assess what chimpanzees really understand about the way their physical world works. This book presents a rigorous documented set of internally consistent results that offer a stalwart challenge for anyone harbouring ambitions to chart the true mentality of chimpanzees." -- Andrew Whiten, Nature, Vol 409, Jan 11, 2001
"Folk Physics for Apes, written by anthropologist Daniel Povinelli; represents a recent contribution to hthis contentious history. . .Povinelli's bottom line is that chimpanzees think about the physical world in a way radically different from our own."--Science


Product Description
From an early age, humans know a surprising amount about basic physical principles, such as gravity, force, mass, and shape. We can see this in the way that young children play, and manipulate objects around them. The same behavior has long been observed in primates - chimpanzees have been shown to possess a remarkable ability to make and use simple tools. But what does this tell us about their inner mental state - do they therefore share the same understanding to that of a young child? Do they understand the simple, underlying physical principles involved? Though some people would say that they do, this book reports groundbreaking research that questions whether this really is the case. Folk Physics for Apes challenges the assumptions so often made about apes. It offers us a rare glimpse into the workings of another mind, examining how apes perceive and understand the physical world - an understanding that appears to be both similar to, and yet profoundly different from our own. The book will have broad appeal to evolutionary psychologists, developmental psychologists, and those interested in the sub-disciplines of cognitive science (philosophy, anthropology). The book additionally offers for developmental psychologists some valuable new non-verbal techniques for assessing causal understanding in young children.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (July 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198572190
• ISBN-13: 978-0198572190
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #971,572 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking, Definitive Research, August 2, 2003

By	Philip W. Meade - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is exceptionally well written, and the research behind it is powerful and compelling. I first came across Povinelli's work in a special Scientific American issue on intelligence, where he debated his former mentor, Gordon Gallup, on the nature and extent of chimpanzee self awareness. I was wowed by the strength and elegence of his reasoning then, and again in his previous book, "What Young Chimpanzees Know About Seeing", perhaps all the more so because his conclusions run so completely counter to what I had been conditioned to think about chimps from depictions in popular culture.

This book is even better and more full of revelations than his previous work. I couldn't put it down. On top of that, it is an outstanding example of the rigorous application of scientific method, and could provide many terrific examples for teachers trying to teach the scientific method to students.

"Folk Physics for Apes" is probably the best scientific book I've read, beating out tough competition from "The Selfish Gene" and "The Extended Phenotype" (R. Dawkins), "The Dinosaur Heresies" (R. Bakker), as well as other top notch books on the nature of mind, like "An Anthropologist on Mars" (O. Sacks) and "The Rediscovery of the Mind" (J. Searle).

Simply the best!