Humans have large brains and high intelligence.

The natural and the social world shaped the evolution of each.

Knowing whom to invite to dinner is as important as knowing how to cook.

We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. ―Darwin

Compared with other mammals, human beings have large brains and access to types of intelligence that other animals cannot even contemplate (not that they would care!). As to the brain, scientists have explored several measures of interest, such as its absolute size, its size relative to the entire body, its structure, morphology, and complexity, as well as the total number of neurons. The emerging consensus is that the human brain is large and complex, but not bizarrely so compared with other species of interest. The brains of orca whales, for example, measure up to human brains to such a degree that we, as a species, have little reason for self-congratulation. Our species fits into Nature’s overall pattern and design as one among many (Herculano-Houzel, 2012).

As to intelligence, interspecies comparisons are complicated by the fact that different species have evolved intelligences that are adapted to their respective ecologies. In the bat ecology, for example, a bat is much smarter than a person. The standard impression that humans are overall smarter than other animals must therefore resort to indirect types of evidence and argument if it is to be convincing. For over a century, scholars have proposed myriad ways in which humans are cognitively unique, not only when compared with other mammals but even compared with our large-brained extinct cousins, the Neanderthals. Here, the emerging consensus is........

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