Straw Dogs
by John Gray · first published 2003
36% recommend64% neutral
"Straw Dogs is a 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 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. Even in the present day, despite Darwin's discoveries, nearly all schools of thought take as their starting point the belief that humans are r
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Straw Dogs by John Gray - Interesting new ways of looking at things. Read at your own peril.
on “What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?” ↗…waiting for it to fall apart. The amount of information that you have to willingly ignore these days to participate in the ''progress solves all ills'' narrative is huge. On vestigial monotheism read Straw Dogs by John Gray if you haven't.
on “The Myth of AI – Jaron Lanier” ↗Here's my list of mainly non-fiction. The Blank Slate - Stephen Pinker Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher Straw Dogs - John Gray Godel Esher Bach - Douglas Hoffstader The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac Path with a Heart - Jack Kornfield
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗…extensions rather than disownments of religious dogma. Here's a taste of his kind of take on things - http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2009/12/past-decade-world-... I would strongly recommend his book Straw Dogs, though it is very polemic in style.
on “Al-Jazari” ↗…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_N%C3%B8rretranders [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_K%C3%BCpfm%C3%BCller [2] http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Sensory-Physiology-Spring... [3] http://www.amazon.com/Straw-Dogs-Thoughts-Humans-Animals/dp/... [4] http://books.google.com/books?id=k5PkZXJEQqoC&lpg=PA45&#...
on “16 bits per second - the bandwidth of consciousness (2007)” ↗Well, we have progressed to philosophers like John Gray (the author of Straw Dogs, not the relationship counselor who wrote that Mars/Venus thingy), though he would presumably argue that we haven't, given his views on progress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmRBHCclzZk
on “Has there been progress in philosophy?” ↗The idea that we are not all that dissimilar from our animal counterparts is one of the central arguments put forward by John Gray in Straw Dogs. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Straw-Dogs-Thoughts-Humans-Animals/...
on “Consciousness Doesn’t Depend on Language” ↗> p.s. I think John Gray Are you into Humanities, dang? What is your target about John Gray? Maybe Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals? I did not know LSE's John Gray was so "famous" - I would have thought the homonymous proponent of the "Mars and Venus" ideas could came to mind earlier!
on “Nietzsche in Turin” ↗…going to happen. The evidence of science and history here may as well read 'It's common knowledge that...' a phrase that doesn't really support anything. > “Technical progress,” writes Gray, again in Straw Dogs, “leaves only one problem unsolved: the frailty of human nature. Unfortunately that problem is insoluble.” Because, hey, I say it is. > Humanists believe that humanity improves along with the growth…
on “The Fallacy of Human Freedom” ↗…perhaps this article gives some hints as to his intention, to light a spark in our subconscious? Im not sure any lights flickered in my head reading that book though! I think he got very famous with the Straw Dogs and Black Dawn books (I've not read those). Recently he seems to be a columnist mostly ranting about SJWs and brexit - effectively a small c conservative pundit, but sometimes these contain a gem of a…
on “John Gray: 'What can we learn from cats? Don't live in an imagined future'” ↗Possibly, though I only know the Mars/Venus guy because Amazon used to recommend those books based on the fact that is bought ‘Straw Dogs’
on “John Gray: 'What can we learn from cats? Don't live in an imagined future'” ↗