Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Gray, John

ISBN 10: 1862075123 / ISBN 13: 9781862075122

Published by Granta Books, 2003

About this Item

Clean copy. Book in great condition but for some age-spotting to top edge (see photo). There is also light wear to jacket (curled edges and few scratches).

Seller Inventory # ABE-1776601982078

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1862075123
• ISBN 13: 9781862075122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dimensions: 2.54W x 14.61H x 22.86D centimeters 2.54 centimeters width by 14.61 centimeters height by 22.86 centimeters depth
• Weight: 408 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Offering a post-humanistic perspective on the world, the author of False Dawn presents a radical new work of philosophy that eliminates the idea that humans are radically different from other animals, drawing on inspiration from art, poetry, cutting-edge scientific research, and philosophy.

Reviews

In a work of thoroughgoing iconoclasm, British philosopher Gray attacks the belief that humans are different from and superior to animals. Invoking pure Darwinism, he savages every perspective from which humans appear as anything more than a genetic accident that has produced a highly destructive species (homo rapiens)--a species that exterminates other species at a phenomenal rate as our swelling numbers despoil the global environment. Gray explains the human refusal to confront the darker realities of our nature largely as the result of how we have consoled ourselves with the myths of Christianity and its secular offspring, humanism and utopianism. Human vanity, he complains, has even converted science (which should teach us of our insignificant place in nature) into an ideology of progress. But neither hope for progress nor confidence in human morality passes muster with Gray, who envisions a future in which the human population finally contracts as a world politics that grows ever more predatory and brutal shatters all such illusions. As a work of ruthless rigor, this provocative book will force readers to reexamine their own convictions. Bryce Christensen
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