MAIN IDEA:

This book explores the gap between humans and other animals. It rejects the dualistic approach and looks at the gap from the scientific point of view, which it defines this way:” Yet modern science has established that the mind is inextricably intertwined with the body. Lesions to your brain, say, from a tumor or a stroke, have predictable effects on your mind. For example, a lesion in the temporal lobes just behind your ear can destroy your ability to comprehend language. A subdiscipline of modern psychological science called “embodied cognition” examines more subtle links, showing that people’s mental experiences and judgments change when their bodies are slightly manipulated.”

MY TAKE ON IT:

The very interesting part for me is the detailed and careful approach to comparing the human brain to other animals’ brains, demonstrating the human brain’s comparative excess for satisfying the typical needs of an organism’s survival.

So, like many others, I agree that human specificity comes from super complex human socialization and the need to reconcile individual survival and DNA evolution with group survival and cultural evolution. With the development of technology, which provides abundant goods and services, individual survival is guaranteed, while competition(war) between groups becomes exceedingly dangerous, potentially threatening the destruction of the species. 

 We seem to be approaching the point when humanity must become civilized or die. Here is Darwin’s quote referring to this:”