Straw Dogs
Subtitle: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: March 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9781862075122
Subjects: Topics in philosophy; Western philosophy; Movements - Humanism; History Of Philosophy; Political Philosophy; Philosophy; Political; Philosophical anthropology; Animal Rights; History & Surveys - General; Animal nature; Human beings; Human beings in literature
First sentence: Most people today think they belong to a species that can be master of its destiny.
Description: "Straw Dogs is a work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. Even in the present day, despite Darwin's discoveries, nearly all schools of thought take as their starting point the belief that humans are radically different from other animals. John Gray argues that this humanist belief is an illusion. The aim of Straw Dogs is to explore how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned." "Straw Dogs explores philosophical issues such as the nature of the self, free will, morality, progress and the value of truth. Drawing his inspiration from art, poetry, and the frontiers of science as well as philosophy itself, John Gray presents a post-humanist view of the world and of human life. Straw Dogs is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing book that leads the reader to question their deepest beliefs."--Jacket.