Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

by John Gray

Book Overview

The British bestseller Straw Dogs is an exciting, radical 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 and Marx, 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374270937
• ISBN13: 9780374270933
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Requiem For A Dream

Like a cold alpine wind cutting through a tepid, humid afternoon, Straw Dogs is blessed relief from the usual jargon-laden work of professional philosophers or the shallow hackwork of pop psychologists. While most will undoubtedly find its message repulsive, if you're at all weary of the relentless salesmanship of "progress" from both religious and secular outlets, this book will be strangely reassuring. Taking his cue from Schopenhauer, Gray's central critique is of humanism itself, in that he sees it for what I believe it is: conceited speciesism of gargantuan proportions. Gray perceives Platonic Christianity as the, ahem, godfather of a long line of utopian beliefs that inevitably sacrifice much on the alter of an unattainable perfection. Whether it be monotheistic religion, Maoism, Nazism, radical conservatism or radical liberalism, the recurring leitmotiv of these movements is an unrealistic, mad-dog faith in the progress and perfectibility of humanity. The truth is much less grandiose. Gray's writing style is aphoristic (again taking a cue from Schopenhauer, as well as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein), and his micro-essays are perfectly pitched in suggesting ideas, while allowing the reader to explore further. For a mere 200 pages, it is the most profitable reading I've experienced in quite some time. While he unfortunately downplays some of undoubted triumphs of the Enlightenment, on the whole, his deconstruction of humanistic hubris is most welcome. Highly recommended!

Provocative, Stimulating, but Ultimately Gray's Nihilism Is Unconvincing

Sharp thinker John Gray argues that the Christians and secular humanists have got it all wrong. Their shared belief that humans are on the center stage of history, that we are distinct from animals, that we are moral beings, and that, whether through God or science or the power of reason, we are progressing toward utopia and perfection is a grotesque illusion. In fact, Gray argues, we are helplessly irrational, immoral, and doomed to destruction as our "rapacity," the very quality that makes us succeed and flourish, is the same quality that will result in our extinction. Gray claims that we are doomed because we are the earth's "parasites" and our overpopulation and misguided technology will destroy us. Gray lays out three philosophies of life and I inferred that we must choose from one of them: the religious believer, the secular humanist, or, like Gray, the Darwinian nihilist. The former two, as I wrote earlier, are according to Gray mired in the delusion that we are moral and distinct from animals. Then there is Gray's belief that we are nothing more than animals, living out our instincts. But I reject Gray's choices. I argue that one can be a Weary Humanist, one who is not deluded by our irrational impulses and general limitations but one who finds meaning by struggling to alleviate cruelty and suffering. Gray says we should give up our struggle to be moral because our "morality" is a delusion. While I admire Gray's intellectual rigor, I cannot embrace his nihilism. Like Gray, I will acknowledge our human flaws, but he did not convince me to give up my struggle to be more moral and to cultivate compassion. In the end I must give Gray the full max of 5 stars because his fascinating book took me down a concise tour of philosophy, Darwin, science, and made me examine my beliefs. I would rather read an original challenging book like Gray's that I don't completely agree with than some trite collection of homilies. My hats off to Gray for writing something so original and provocative.

We cannot make the world to be for us.

It is over a hundred years since Darwin revealed to us our animal lineage, and yet the human primate is still having difficulty coming to terms with its animal origins. All bar creationists may indeed now accept that we are descended from apes, but most of us still cling to the belief that we have somehow become different to the rest of the animal kingdom. Our ability to use language and reason, to see ourselves as selves, selves that move forward in time and, with other selves, progress by building a culture based on moral rules and a technology that seems to give us ever increasing control over our environment. Surely this is enough to set us apart from the rest of nature? No. Thankfully, a British philosopher who lives and breathes today but who speaks with the depth and clarity of a modern day Schopenhauer is here to rid you of this delusion. Human beings are still animals claims Gray, but the more profound insight that he delivers, and that his critics seem unable to grasp or admit, is that humans, and even whatever intelligence that might emerge in a 'posthuman' future, will always be inescapably rooted in the natural world as much as the lowliest of slime molds. We believe that language and reason are what differentiates us, forgetting that we acquired these abilities through the blind mechanisms of evolution. This means that they are, as Hume, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche declared long before Darwin, mere tools in the brutish struggle for survival. These same tools enabled the human animal to create the illusions of free will, self and morality and the delusion to think that with these, man has the ability to stand apart from the animal world and choose his own fate. But the fundamental import of Darwinism is that it tells us that 'we' were 'made' for the world. The world was not made for us, nor can we ever make it, nor indeed any world, to be for us. Some rather simple-minded criticisms of Gray's outlook are floating around the Internet, including on this page, so lest they deter you from reading this book, here are a few brief rejoinders that can be made to them. 1/ 'Gray teaches us nothing new. Postmodernism has been around for 40 years now.' Gray clearly isn't giving just another rehash of postmodernist thought. In fact his book is a savage attack on some of the postmodernist thought that has now been neatly incorporated into liberal thinking. The belief that the world is entirely a social construction, that this construction is determined by power relationships and that therefore by changing those power relationships society can mould the world into whatever form it chooses. The way that humans see the world may indeed be due to power relationships within society, but these arise because of the fact that humans are biological animals in an inherently competitive natural world. Postmodernism is, as Gray says, 'just the latest fad in anthropocentrism'. 2/ 'Gray criticises science as a faith but seems to hold Darwinism

An anguished plea

John Gray concludes his book with a tragic entreaty: "Can we not think of the aim of life as simply to see?" His plea for awareness reveals the cloak of obscuratism our mythology has draped over all nature. Reading Straw Dogs is like being abruptly roused from a pleasant dream. "Wake and shake!", he cries. Wake up to the falsity of the dogmas under which you live. Shake them off and recognize that we live within reality's domain, not that of phantasms and fables. These ideas disturb the comfortable, yet offer little comfort to those seeking an easy answer to life's challenges. Gray understands our need for solace, but he knows reality isn't a tourist resort. Nature is a harsh realm and he wishes us to confront enduring questions honestly. Writing this book means he thinks we can do that.Gray's thesis relies on aknowledging our place in the realm of nature. We are, he reminds us, merely a part of the animal kingdom. We are neither a special creation nor particularly unique. Writing alone, with the continuity it provides, sets us apart while granting significant powers. The "continuity" led to the notion of human "progress" and "perfectability". In an evolutionary sense both ideas are false, and we are evolution's product. Even humanism, supposedly rational and secular, has fallen into the trap of seeking "perfectability". Gray finds this misleading and self-serving. He examines the work of Western philosophers, the guides to our thinking, finding them mistaken or misleading. In today's milieu, Lovelock's Gaia concept of the whole planet acting like a single organism, should be reconsidered. Whether the details of this idea are valid is irrelevant. It is the notion that we are apart from the remainder of nature that we must cast away. The monotheist dogma granting us "dominion over the earth" is the most pernicious idea developed by humanity, Gray asserts.Gray's text is fragmented without sacrificing continuity. His techique allows pauses for reflection. He posits ideas, questions, suggestions, assertions freely. Stop and think about them as you read. He tumbles many icons - he indicts Christianty on the second page, suggesting what will follow. He is resolute and articulate about how important these questions are to us. A superficial look at this work may lead the reader to feel hopeless. If there was no hope, however, Gray wouldn't have bothered to write this book. Like any thinker, he's concerned about the future. The prospects appear bleak, but not insurmountable. He assumes the reader is intelligent enough to consider and act on realistic solutions. "Perfectibility" of humanity within nature may be impossible, but with an informed outlook "accomodation" can be achieved. The first step, however, is the shedding of false dogmas.Being informed isn't an easy task, Gray concedes. He presents the thoughts of previous philosophers, but without direct attribution. If you need references, his extensive bibliography is

NOT SINCE D'HOLBACH!

Seriously, kids. Not since the young Goethe choked on d'Holbach's "System of Nature", not since you burned your brain on "The Will to Power" (from which this book clearly draws a great deal), has there been a book so ruthless in its unmasking of human pretension. Gray disposes of postmodernism with not even a full page. Oh, what, you love those Situationists? He knocks them too-hollow! (As if you didn't know that already.) This is philosophy with brass-knuckles, yet with the style of a stroll around the block. A little extreme in his own line (thus unfair to Nietzsche), but you take what you can get with books. I can't believe I'm the first to review it here.I know the customary thing to do is give a long, erudite-sounding summary of the book, making you want to read it. Instead, I want you to act on trust. I'll call this book a bundle of dynamite which will destroy your misconceptions of yourself, of our species, of modernity, of philosophy. I expect you to want to be surprised. I won't dangle some excerpts or some summary in front of you like you're a kitty-cat. Just do yourself a favor: trust me by getting this book, then trust the author by following it very closely. Your philosophies are corrupt; it's time you face that.