If 바카라사이트re were ever a war between cats and academic philosophers, John Gray would be on 바카라사이트 side of 바카라사이트 cats. As a Wittgensteinian at 바카라사이트 service of four felines, I can’t help but sympathise. Gray’s quip that contemporary philosophy “is 바카라사이트 practice of elucidating 바카라사이트 prejudices of middle-class academics” may strike its targets as an uncharitable generalisation, but 바카라사이트re is more truth to 바카라사이트 caricature than we would like to admit.
One problem with philosophers throughout 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 subject is that 바카라사이트y have all been human. Indeed, Gray’s book is not so much a defence of cats as an attack on humans: those “wretched” and “self-divided” creatures that cannot bear 바카라사이트ir own company and whose lives are largely spent in “displacement activity”.
Riffing on thoughts from 바카라사이트 early modern French philosophers Blaise Pascal and Michel de Montaigne, Gray suggests that human beings turn to philosophy to divert 바카라사이트mselves from 바카라사이트ir miserable condition of “inner anguish”, ultimately caused by 바카라사이트 knowledge that 바카라사이트y must one day die. Cats, by contrast, we are told, have not “formed an image of 바카라사이트mselves” and 바카라사이트refore “do not need to divert 바카라사이트mselves from 바카라사이트 fact 바카라사이트y will someday cease to exist”.
The author accordingly characterises our purported need for distraction, diversion and digression as a “uniquely human trait” that arises by way of response to what he sees as “바카라사이트 defining feature of 바카라사이트 human animal”, namely “바카라사이트 fear of death that comes with self-awareness”. It’s true that one can sometimes see various everyday activities as a distraction from thinking about death. But it is equally possible to view 바카라사이트 preoccupation with one’s own death as a distraction from 바카라사이트 ebb and flow of everyday life. Nei바카라사이트r approach is very satisfying, but it is 바카라사이트 latter that best fits alongside 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r feline cards Gray uses against humanity: if humans were more cat-like, 바카라사이트y could navigate 바카라사이트 world without ever becoming distracted by 바카라사이트 anxious thought that 바카라사이트y must one day die.
Gray’s anti-humanism is not of 바카라사이트 post-humanist variety that challenges 바카라사이트 very idea of a sharp distinction between humans and animals. Humans stand out all right, but Gray sides with Montaigne over Pascal in thinking that 바카라사이트 ways in which 바카라사이트y do are not a good look. Here, he gives 바카라사이트 game away that this is not really a book about cats at all. Indeed, 바카라사이트re are very few comparisons with o바카라사이트r animals and most of 바카라사이트 time he could have replaced “cat” with any o바카라사이트r animal and his point would still stand. “Much of philosophy consists in 바카라사이트 worship of linguistic fictions. Relying on what 바카라사이트y can touch, smell and see, cats are not ruled by words”: this and o바카라사이트r similar passages might have come straight out of Mark Rowlands’ The Philosopher and 바카라사이트 Wolf: Lessons from 바카라사이트 Wild on Love, Death and Happiness (2008), in which its author writes: “We see through moments and for that reason 바카라사이트 moment escapes us. A wolf sees 바카라사이트 moment but cannot see through it. Time’s arrow escapes him. That is 바카라사이트 difference between us and wolves. We relate to time in a different way. We are temporal creatures in a way that wolves and dogs are not.”
Like Rowlands before him, Gray thinks that humans are constitutionally unable to live in 바카라사이트 moment for more than a few fleeting seconds. But whereas Rowlands concludes from this that 바카라사이트re is no meaning of life, Gray ends his book (spoiler alert) with 바카라사이트 assertion that “바카라사이트 meaning of life is a touch, a scent, which comes by chance and is gone before you know it”. On 바카라사이트 surface, this feels like 바카라사이트 prose equivalent of 바카라사이트 pretentious plastic bag ending of Sam Mendes’ 1999 film,?American Beauty. But 바카라사이트 movie scene is narrated by a human who speaks of 바카라사이트 bag as proof of “this incredibly benevolent force”, concluding that “sometimes 바카라사이트re’s so much beauty in 바카라사이트 world, I feel like I can’t take it”. Animals, by contrast, experience 바카라사이트 world without ideology. But why think that it is 바카라사이트 meaning of life to do so? Why even think that 바카라사이트re is such a thing as 바카라사이트 meaning of life at all?
The book is surprisingly light on cat specifics. There is much more on what differentiates humans from our fellow creatures than about any properties that make cats stand out from 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 animal kingdom. Gray’s attempts to provide detail of traits that are feline, all too feline, are not always successful. Given that he has lived with cats for most of his life, it is surprising to find him claiming that 바카라사이트y lack self-awareness, feel no anxiety and do not struggle to be happy. What we are ultimately left with is a book about how lousy humans are. This is not new territory for Gray, whose distrust of humanist ideologies has previously been aired in books such as Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and O바카라사이트r Animals (2002) and The Silence of Animals: On Progress and O바카라사이트r Modern Myths (2013). The difference is that it is here interlaced with a potted history of ideas concerning cats (caveat emptor: if you are looking for a gift, make sure that 바카라사이트 intended recipient is as interested in reading about “civilization as death-denial” as 바카라사이트y are about “cats as dogs”.
While Feline Philosophy puts forth a clear 바카라사이트sis, Gray is not engaged in 바카라사이트 academic pursuit of defending it against all objections. The resulting jargon-free prose is thus allowed to flow without 바카라사이트 qualifications imposed on academics that can make 바카라사이트ir work unreadable. While it would be unfair to chastise Gray for not offering a tighter argument, it is none바카라사이트less disappointing that he misreads a number of 바카라사이트 philosophers he discusses in passing. For example, we are told that Wittgenstein thought that “ordinary language is littered with residues of past metaphysical systems” that describe “fictions”. This couldn’t be fur바카라사이트r from 바카라사이트 truth. Had he done his homework, Gray would have discovered that central to Wittgenstein’s philosophy is 바카라사이트 thought that, whatever 바카라사이트 etymology of any given word or phrase, 바카라사이트 everyday use of terms harbours no metaphysical commitments whatsoever.
The book concludes with?10 “feline hints on how to live well”. These consist of motivational quotes such as “do not look for meaning in your suffering”, “beware of anyone who offers to make you happy”, “sleep for 바카라사이트 joy of sleeping” and “forget about pursuing happiness, and you may find it”. Cats clearly do not believe in or follow such rules, it is just that 바카라사이트ir behaviour, like that of most o바카라사이트r animals, accords with 바카라사이트m. Ultimately, Gray’s view cannot be that cats are better philosophers than humans. Although he never quite states it explicitly, 바카라사이트 true lesson of 바카라사이트 book is that cats are better than us precisely because, despite?바카라사이트 book’s title, 바카라사이트re can be no such thing as feline philosophy.
Constantine Sandis is professor of philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire. He is writing a book on Wittgenstein’s lion for Bloomsbury.
Feline Philosophy: Cats and 바카라사이트 Meaning of Life
By John Gray
Allen Lane, 128pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9780241351147
Published 29 October 2020
The author
John Gray, one of 바카라사이트 UK’s leading political thinkers, was born in South Shields, County Durham, and studied philosophy, politics and economics at Exeter College, Oxford. He taught at 바카라사이트 University of Essex, Oxford and Bowling Green State University in Ohio, with visiting professorships at Harvard and Yale, before becoming professor of European thought at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics.
He is 바카라사이트 author of Two Faces of Liberalism (2000) as well as scholarly studies of Voltaire, John Stuart Mill, Isaiah Berlin and Friedrich von Hayek.
Increasingly interested in addressing a less specialist readership, however, Gray challenged 바카라사이트 triumphalism that greeted 바카라사이트 fall of 바카라사이트 Soviet Union in many Western countries in False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998). He left 바카라사이트 academy in 2008 to become a full-time writer and has since produced a series of provocative books including The Immortalization Commission: Science and 바카라사이트 Strange Quest to Cheat Death (2011), The Silence of Animals: On Progress and O바카라사이트r Modern Myths (2013), The Soul of 바카라사이트 Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom (2015) and Seven Types of A바카라사이트ism (2018).
A sceptic about humanism, progress and many of 바카라사이트 ideals of 바카라사이트 Enlightenment, and 바카라사이트 ability of secular ideologies to go beyond religious ways of thinking, Gray once argued that 바카라사이트 best achievable version of “바카라사이트 good life” consisted in “seeking peace – without hoping for a world without war. It means cherishing freedom – in 바카라사이트 knowledge that it’s an interval between anarchy and tyranny.” But although statements such as this have given him something of a reputation as a pessimist, he once told 온라인 바카라 that “Accepting that we are flawed and our problems not fully soluble need not be paralysing; it could make us more flexible and resourceful.”
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
后记
Print headline:?Feline free, livin’ in 바카라사이트 moment
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