Frans de Waal

The four dimensions in the 16-axis model where this thinker scores highest. People in this archetype tend to lean the same way.

• TRTrust in Reason

  7 / 10
• TETrust in Experience

  7 / 10
• POPractical Orientation

  7 / 10
• TDTheoretical Drive

  7 / 10

The six thinkers whose 16-dimensional positions sit closest to this one. Useful as next-reading suggestions.

• D.S. WilsonCARTOGRAPHER

  Multilevel selection — group selection rehabilitated for behavior.

• Ruth MillikanTOUCHSTONE

  Biosemantics — content as evolved proper function.

• Susan HaackTOUCHSTONE

  Foundherentism — knowledge like a crossword, not a pyramid.

• Edward O. WilsonCARTOGRAPHER

  Consilience — unity of knowledge across the natural sciences.

• Owen FlanaganTOUCHSTONE

  Naturalized ethics — moral psychology grounded in biology.

• Alva NoëTOUCHSTONE

  Out of Our Heads — perception is what we do, not what we have.

Short exercises in the same tradition as Frans de Waal's thought. Each takes 5–25 minutes.

• Argument mapping →

  Draw the structure of an argument as boxes and arrows. See its load-bearing walls.

• Reductio ad absurdum →

  Take a claim seriously, run it to its logical limit, see if you still believe it.

• Counterexample drill →

  Try to break a moral rule with a single concrete case.