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Interviews | June 19, 2009

All posts by Dave Jim Lynch Makes Landscape Art... Out of Text

If Carl Hiaasen set one of his novels on a residential stretch of boundary line between British Columbia and Washington, or if Richard Russo's characters had relatives in the Pacific Northwest, the result might be something like Jim Lynch's Border Songs. Continue »


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Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good

by Jonathan Balcombe

Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:


Pleasurable Kingdom presents new evidence that animals, like humans, enjoy themselves. From birds to baboons, insects to iguanas, animals feel good thanks to play, sex, touch, food, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics, and more. Combining rigorous evidence, elegant argument and amusing anecdotes, leading animal behavior researcher Jonathan Balcombe shows that the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ethical ramifications for both science and society.
 
For more information please visit the author's website at www.pleasurablekingdom.com

Synopsis:

Pleasurable Kingdom is the first trade book to focus on new evidence that animals, like humans, enjoy themselves. It debunks the popular perception that life for most is a continuous, grim struggle for survival. Instead it suggests that creatures from birds to bats to baboons may feel good thanks to play, sex, touch, food, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics and more. Leading animal behaviour researcher, Dr Jonathan Balcombe, combines rigorous evidence, elegant argument and amusing anecdote. Animal pain and stress, once controversial, are now acknowledged by legislation in many countries. Likewise the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ramifications for science and society and is thus ripe for informed debate, Balcombe concludes.

Table of Contents

PART I: WHY ANIMAL PLEASURE * Survival of the Happiest: The Adaptive Basis for Pleasure * Forbidden Pleasures: our Reluctance to Acknowledge Animal Pleasure * Feeling Smart: The Intelligence of Pleasure * PART II: WHAT ANIMAL PLEASURE * Play: Fun for Its Own Sake * Food: The Pleasures of Sustenance * Sex: Procreation and Recreation * Touch: Making Contact with Pleasure * Love: The Ripening Warmth of Intimacy * Other Pleasures: Esthetics, Humor and Beyond * From Flies to Fish: At the Margins of Pleasure * PART III: FROM ANIMAL PLEASURE * Feeling Good, Doing Good: Implications of a Pleasurable Kingdom * NOTES, REFERENCES, FURTHER READING PART I: WHY ANIMAL PLEASURE * Survival of the Happiest: The Adaptive Basis for Pleasure * Forbidden Pleasures: our Reluctance to Acknowledge Animal Pleasure * Feeling Smart: The Intelligence of Pleasure * PART II: WHAT ANIMAL PLEASURE * Play: Fun for Its Own Sake * Food: The Pleasures of Sustenance * Sex: Procreation and Recreation * Touch: Making Contact with Pleasure * Love: The Ripening Warmth of Intimacy * Other Pleasures: Esthetics, Humor and Beyond * From Flies to Fish: At the Margins of Pleasure * PART III: FROM ANIMAL PLEASURE * Feeling Good, Doing Good: Implications of a Pleasurable Kingdom * NOTES, REFERENCES, FURTHER READING

Product Details

ISBN:
9781403986023
Subtitle:
Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good
Author:
Balcombe, Jonathan
Foreword:
Singer, Peter
Publisher:
MacMillan
Subject:
Zoology
Subject:
Life Sciences - Zoology - General
Copyright:
Publication Date:
July 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
274
Dimensions:
8.44x5.26x.74 in. .59 lbs.

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