"It has been a wonderful reading year for innovative, intelligent, and passionate nonfiction. Four books in particular were outstanding . . . [including] Svendsen’s Understanding Animals."

Simon Caterson | Australian, "Books of the Year"

"Combines scientific research with the teachings of the great philosophers, particularly Wittgenstein, Kant, and Heidegger, to probe the consciousness of animals, especially the ones closest to us (as well as, unexpectedly, octopuses). Chapters address animal morality, grief, loneliness and more. Readers will emerge knowing more about themselves than animals, and that’s precisely Svendsen’s goal."

Sarah Murdoch | Toronto Star

"Svendsen gives full credit to what he calls 'the amateur's view of the animal' while engaging with, for example, Descartes's notion of the animal as a sort of machine—capable of responding to stimuli but not possessing consciousness as such, which requires language. (No cogito, ergo no cogitation.) A less extreme formulation would insist that we only have certain access to animal behavior; whatever mental phenomena (e.g., emotion, memory, intellect) we may attribute to that behavior can only be an anthropomorphic projection on our part. It is possible to advance such ideas in a public discussion but difficult to maintain them upon returning home to a pet. 'The amateur is, as the word quite literally means, one who loves,' Svendsen writes, 'and that loving view in itself can reveal something that the distanced [view] cannot grasp.'" 

Scott McLemee | Inside Higher Ed

"Reading these two excellent books on what we do and do not have in common with animals had a similarly exhilarating yet disorienting effect. In attempting to enlarge our understanding of animals—beginning with those domestic pets closest to us—we must be prepared to confront our own limitations, both physical and intellectual. In doing this, we may not only deepen our awareness of them but also more clearly explain our own existence. . . . [These books] approach the knowledge deficit and empathy gap between humans and other animals from quite different angles. Each, in its own way, is positive and indispensable. In essence the message from the two authors is the same—we humans are limited in our understanding of animals, as well as ourselves, only by our own curiosity, intelligence, and imagination."

Australian

"It is funny how often philosophers have been right about other animals, and how often they have been wrong. In this enlightening book, Svendsen takes us through a history of Western philosophical musings, from Wittgenstein’s lion to Descartes’s automatons, comparing them with current knowledge."

Frans de Waal, author of "Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves"

“As knowledge about life, human and otherwise, grows greater and greater, we need a lucid guide through a thicket of questions that emerge when we try to understand animals, including the ones we are. Svendsen is that guide. . . . Clear as always and with a dose of characteristic humor thrown in, Svendsen draws on contributions from all the participant disciplines—philosophy, biology, and zoology, for instance, but also cognitive science and even literature—to address the many questions that arise when we take seriously the importance of understanding animals.”

Jeffrey Kosky, author of "Arts of Wonder: Enchanting Secularity"