The book of one of the most famous primatologists of the world, Frans de Waal, is devoted to the evolutionary origins of human nature, its duality and biological roots. De Waal considers four key aspects of our nature - the desire for power, the need for sex, the propensity for acts of violence and acts of kindness - and, based on many years of observation of great apes, proves that all this is fully characteristic of them too. In his work, he argues in favor of the concept of man as a social animal, a "bipolar ape", equally similar to aggressive, competitive chimpanzees and empathic hedonistic bonobos. Without ignoring the baser aspects of human nature, de Waal pays special attention to its positive, moral manifestations and how these two sides combine and complement each other, being equally important for the evolution of our species and for the survival of civilization as a whole.