a common reader

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, the Western tradition has been based, according to John Gray, on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Liberal and marxist viewpoints present 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. Gray argues that this belief in human difference is an illusion.

Straw Dogs explores how the world and human life would look once humanism has been abandoned. Gray examines 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, he presents a post-humanist view of the world and of human life. An exhilarating, sometimes disturbing and wholly provocative book, Straw Dogs leads readers to question their deepest beliefs.