Vaal, Frans de

In 1977, Frans de Waal received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utrecht . Since 1993, member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences . In 1997, he was on the list of the hundred most influential people in the world according to Time magazine . In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at the ( Utrecht ).

In a study of primates, the scientist analyzes a complex system of social relations, including the formation of marriage unions, reciprocal exchange, reconciliation following aggression , fraudulent communication, and a reaction to stress generated by the environment.

The popular science book "Politics in Chimpanzees" ( Eng. Chimpanzee Politics ) was published in London in 1982 . In it, de Waal refuses from the traditional for academic science requirement not to attribute human qualities to animals, from analyzing animals as an " instinctive machine." Such an approach influenced the development of the scientific field that studies cognitive abilities ( cognitiveness ) of primates in connection with such behavioral attitudes as cooperation , altruism , and justice .

For the first time in studies of a Dutch scientist, the behavior of primates was considered in terms of systematic social strategies. Early work analyzed behavioral strategies such as deception , conflict resolution. Recent studies have focused on the empathy of animals, and even on the beginnings of morality in them. De Waal asserts the absence of clear boundaries between man and monkeys in terms of social qualities, abilities for empathy and cooperation. ^[2]

In 2012, Frans de Waal, together with Jennifer Pokorny, won the Snobel Prize in Anatomy for discovering that chimpanzees can recognize other chimpanzees from their group not only from photographs of the “face”, but also from photographs of the anal-genital area. Chimpanzees have also successfully recognized among unfamiliar photographs of males and females, using only the images of the "face" ^[3]

A foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (2004) ^[4] . Honorary Doctor of Yale University (2018) ^[5] .

• de Waal, FBM (1982) Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among the Apes (Jonathan Cape, London).
• de Waal, FBM (1996) Good Natured: The Beatles of the Wilds and Others (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA).
• de Waal, FBM (1997) Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, photographs by Lanting, F. (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, CA).
• de Waal, FBM (2001) The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections by a Primatologist (Basic Books, New York).
• de Waal, FBM & Tyack, PL (2003) Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA).
• de Waal, FBM (2003) My Family Album: Thirty Years of Primate Photography (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, CA).

Russian translations

• Frans de Waal. The origins of morality: In search of human primates = The Bonobo and the Atheist. - M .: Alpina non-fiction , 2016. - 376 p. - ISBN 978-5-91671-550-7 .
• Frans de Waal. Chimpanzee politics. Power and sex in primates = Chimpanze Politics: Power and Sex among Apes. - M .: Higher School of Economics (State University), 2016. - 272 p. - (Political theory). - ISBN 978-5-7598-1334.
• Frans de Waal. Are we smart enough to judge the mind of animals? = Frans de Waal "Smart Animals Are?". - M .: Alpina Non-fiction, 2016. - 404 p. - ISBN 978-5-91671-617-7 .