a book
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
John Gray · 2004 · 272 pages
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 destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. John Gray argues that this belief in human difference is a dangerous illusion and explores how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned. The result is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing book that leads the reader to question our deepest-held beliefs. Will Self, in the New Statesman, called Straw Dogs his book of the year: "I read it once, I read it twice and took notes . . . I thought it that good." "Nothing will get you thinking as much as this brilliant book" (Sunday Telegraph).
recommended by 5 people
sourced from public statements
Dick Costolo
“@mikeindustries Read this excellent opposing view (of pinker generally and his previous book specifically) by John Gray (english philosopher, author of the fantastic "straw dogs, thoughts on humans and other animals")”↗
Nassim Taleb
“This book is worth 4 stars because here we have a literary intellectual who manages to break through the mud in his knowledge. It would have been worth 5 stars had Gray read a few more works in scientific thought beyond Darwin. Anyway I am very impressed with a literary intellectual capable of this empirical and realistic view of man.”↗
books like Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
other books recommended by the same people who recommend this one
1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die
Mimi Sheraton
2 shared recommenders
A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes
Peter Bevelin
2 shared recommenders
A Guide to Econometrics – 4th Edition
Peter E. Kennedy
2 shared recommenders
A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness
Nicholas Humphrey
2 shared recommenders
A New Kind of Science
Stephen Wolfram
2 shared recommenders
Alchemy
Rory Sutherland
2 shared recommenders
Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure
VILLANI Cédric
2 shared recommenders
Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
Nicholas A. Christakis MD PhD
2 shared recommenders
Bull!: A History of the Boom, 1982-1999: What drove the Breakneck Market – and What Every Investor Needs to Know About Financial Cycles
Maggie Mahar
2 shared recommenders
Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself
Sheila Bair
2 shared recommenders
Confessions of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper
Bryan Magee
2 shared recommenders
Consciousness: An Introduction
Susan Blackmore
2 shared recommenders