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. ...
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Aug 21, 2009
Tim
rated it: 
Potentially life changing. I say potentially because this is not a book for someone who is scared of facing their fears and doubts about what they have believed about mankind and their life. For me, he has blown me away. I can't help jumping up and wanting to tell someone about so many particular sections that i read that are so striking. I will warn you though, be prepared to experience depression or despair if what he writes does speak to you deeply. I feel both liberated and utterly despairin
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(6 people liked it)
May 19, 2011
Troy
rated it: 
Vanity in pessimism.
It is not my customary practice to turn to the back of a book before commencing, but I did with this one to discover the final thirty pages comprising a chapter by chapter “further reading” list. It did not take long for admiration at evidence of scholarship to slide into incredulity, then disgust and finally a breed of dismal hilarity at what unfolds in the body of this book. Although I daren’t suggest Gray hasn’t read the works cited in his further r More...
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(7 people liked it)
Mar 06, 2008
Adrian
rated it:
A savage kick in the face of a book, a white hot iron poked into your brain by someone who is not interested in appealing to any of our notions about Western culture or civilization. Or at least that's what it felt like to me when I first read it. The premise of the book is simple. Human life has no over arching purpose, no meaning, no happy ending and no salvation. Gray spends his time trying to prove this point and to liberate the reader from the anxieties that hoping and wanting for more
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(4 people liked it)
Sep 09, 2011
David
rated it: 
An Attack on the unthinking beliefs of thinking people.
I gather he intends it not to be a well laid out logical presentation of how Humanists, liberal humanism and the idea of progress,.have it all wrong. But instead is a collection of witty observations from a philosophical Oscar Wilde. And many of them really are clever and disarming and probably a few are even true.
My only problem is that he has no problem painting the subject he is skewering in it's most unreasonable More...
I gather he intends it not to be a well laid out logical presentation of how Humanists, liberal humanism and the idea of progress,.have it all wrong. But instead is a collection of witty observations from a philosophical Oscar Wilde. And many of them really are clever and disarming and probably a few are even true.
My only problem is that he has no problem painting the subject he is skewering in it's most unreasonable More...
Oct 28, 2010
Gail
rated it: 
Secular humanism is Christianity in a tracksuit. That's the book in a nutshell. Admittedly, a small and not particularly satisfactory nutshell. But a nutshell nonetheless.
I recommend this to you, dear reader. Gray writes about a vast array of ideas - from science, theology, philosophy and psychology - and, with tremendous economy, unravels the myth perpetuated by thinkers from each discipline in our so-called liberal secular humanist era: that we humans are higher than animals, and th More...
I recommend this to you, dear reader. Gray writes about a vast array of ideas - from science, theology, philosophy and psychology - and, with tremendous economy, unravels the myth perpetuated by thinkers from each discipline in our so-called liberal secular humanist era: that we humans are higher than animals, and th More...
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Sep 08, 2010
Bob
rated it:
This book is filled with one challenge after another to accepted belief and philosophical wisdom. Gray comments that humanism, science and green thinkers are secular versions of Christianity's quest for salvation. Socratic philosophy is the origin of Shamanism, a belief in an unchanging, eternal world that supersedes our material world that is an illusion. Nietzsche's Superman was a "ridiculous figure" who tried to transform humans into something they are not. Does meditation, he a
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Aug 30, 2010
Jon
rated it:
The irony is that I agree with John Gray on most of his large points, that we have reason for pessimism, that mankind will fail to handle some of the larger crises of our day such as population growth, that human history is replete with gratuitous savagery and violence in the name of religion and/or humanistic ideals, that we would do better to be aware of our animal natures, and so forth.
But there is something about the way he does it that turns me off. He wants to survey the histo More...
But there is something about the way he does it that turns me off. He wants to survey the histo More...
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(4 people liked it)
Aug 07, 2011
If you're ever tempted to read Straw Dogs, by John Gray, don't.
I've read through (most of) it (I skipped parts that were run on sentences, after the first few times reading them through to the end taught me they had nothing interesting to say), and I can wholeheartedly recommend against anyone else repeating the experience.
I tried ignoring the poor quality of the science behind the book, ignoring the poor quality of the support for what seems to be the intended point, and even ignoring the thinl More...
I've read through (most of) it (I skipped parts that were run on sentences, after the first few times reading them through to the end taught me they had nothing interesting to say), and I can wholeheartedly recommend against anyone else repeating the experience.
I tried ignoring the poor quality of the science behind the book, ignoring the poor quality of the support for what seems to be the intended point, and even ignoring the thinl More...
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Aug 09, 2010
Dpdwyer
rated it:
Line by line there is much to think about here. I don't know enough philosophy to know if his short takes on a number of major schools have validity. He does not believe that history and evolution progress in the long run, and he feels the world would be less volatile if we did away with utopian ideals and promises in general and just set our sights lower. Endless harm is being done and has been done in the name of great goals. He also takes on the major religions and finds little to like, es
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Feb 05, 2010
Chris
rated it:
Humans think they are free, conscious beings, when in truth they are deluded animals. At the same time they never cease trying to escape from what they imagine themselves to be. Their religions are attempts to be rid of a freedom they have never possessed. In the twentieth century, the utopias of Right and Left served the same function. Today, when politics is unconvincing even as entertainment, science has taken on the role of mankind's deliverer.
The above quote from Straw Dogs serv More...
The above quote from Straw Dogs serv More...
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Oct 16, 2011
Alexander
rated it:
A bit too breezily aphoristic and dismissive at times, Gray's book is still an impressive nail-bomb of neo-Schopenhauerian polemic, veering between scorched earth and Taoist serenity, stoic good humor under reddening skies.
STRAW DOGS is a brazen "remix" of many familiar memes, but woven so artfully in barbed-wire fashion, covering so many rich topics and controversies, that it does what the best philosophical commentary does: provokes and stimulates both sympathizers and an More...
STRAW DOGS is a brazen "remix" of many familiar memes, but woven so artfully in barbed-wire fashion, covering so many rich topics and controversies, that it does what the best philosophical commentary does: provokes and stimulates both sympathizers and an More...
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Jul 17, 2011
Rob
rated it:
Just awful. A rambling, unconvincing argument by a terribly self-satisfied misanthrope.
Pretty disappointing, as I picked up the book hoping for a decent discussion on many of the ideas presented. The non-separateness of humans from the natural world, the illusory nature of the self and consciousness... these are ideas I care about. Indeed, if you have never spent time thinking about them, this book may serve valuable as a devil's advocate and catalyst. That's about the only value I fou More...
Pretty disappointing, as I picked up the book hoping for a decent discussion on many of the ideas presented. The non-separateness of humans from the natural world, the illusory nature of the self and consciousness... these are ideas I care about. Indeed, if you have never spent time thinking about them, this book may serve valuable as a devil's advocate and catalyst. That's about the only value I fou More...
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Jul 19, 2010
Matthew
rated it:
You get the sense reading Straw Dogs that if John Gray were ever to meet a nihilist he'd chide him for being unjustifiably optimistic. Unremittingly grim. A philosphical overview of the human condition that concludes it all started to go wrong for us somewhere around the invention of agriculture. Progress is measured only in the novelty of the tools we use for mass murder. Secular humanism is just Christianity-lite and scientific rationalism exhibits all the key features of a cult. We set oursel
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Jan 13, 2009
Joshuacitrak
rated it:
do not read this book! it will destroy your egocentric, small minded, action-oriented, "modern" view of the actuality of existence. go back to mindlessly consuming, seeking salvation through your christs (be it jesus, coca-cola, NFL football, technology, the environment, your career, whatever) and stand firm in your belief that humans are the most important species to ever exist. they are, they really are!!!
"The aim of life isn't the change the world, but to see it rig More...
"The aim of life isn't the change the world, but to see it rig More...
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Feb 09, 2010
Manifest
rated it:
is there such a thing as humanity? or are there only humans? this may be the "theoretical anti-humanism" badiou was talking about back in the day. big downer if you have any belief in things like "progress." it's utterly bleak if you are in any way religiously inclined. i mean, john gray's hero, it seems, is arthur schnopenhauer.
he seems partial to taoism, and certain asiatic religions. although with him, it doesn't seem to be the brand of "western buddhism" More...
he seems partial to taoism, and certain asiatic religions. although with him, it doesn't seem to be the brand of "western buddhism" More...
Jul 07, 2011
Rosie
rated it:
When I started reading this book I really hated it. The fact that I felt so strongly about it encouraged me to read until the end, and now I've finished there are parts of it I want to copy out word for word and stick up on my wall. I still perhaps can't say I like it, but there are parts of it that are much more intelligent and ideas much more eloquently expressed than I gave the book credit for when I was a third of the way through.
I don't normally read any philosophy, but this is More...
I don't normally read any philosophy, but this is More...
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Nov 11, 2009
Gemma
rated it:
Fascinating and compelling attack on liberal humanism. Gray argues that its belief in progress and the primacy of truth and meaning are derived from secularised christianity and an inability to face the fact that humans are just animals like any others.He argues its our lack of coherent identity or self hood which enables our 'fugitive empathy' with others and that this lack of selfhood renders morality meaningless even as it forms the 'only possible ground' of ethics. Gray asserts that action i
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Aug 09, 2011
Brilliant. A quick easy read since most of his premises agreed with me and echoed my own thoughts. He manages to successfully attack teleological thought, progress, modernism, post modernism, atheism, Judeo-Christian-Islamic thought, etc leaving you with an appreciation for an agnostic relaxed here and now enjoyment of the life we have. An equal opportunity critic he takes down both Plato, Paul, Augustine and Buddha, he manages to tear apart the foundations of western thought without embracing a
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Jun 06, 2009
Rick
rated it:
Grim.
To look up and find not Jesus, but a dog. Nothing would be better, which seems to be the point of this book. Nothing is all that there is.
That's what I wrote after the first reading dimmed. I've just re-read the book, and it wears OK. I went from 3 to 5 stars.
But the entire work is written as if it were a challenge to prove the author wrong. It's a little bit hard, even, not to hear John Gray complaining that no-one really loves him. It seems that if som More...
To look up and find not Jesus, but a dog. Nothing would be better, which seems to be the point of this book. Nothing is all that there is.
That's what I wrote after the first reading dimmed. I've just re-read the book, and it wears OK. I went from 3 to 5 stars.
But the entire work is written as if it were a challenge to prove the author wrong. It's a little bit hard, even, not to hear John Gray complaining that no-one really loves him. It seems that if som More...
Dec 11, 2011
Peter
rated it:
Absolutely essential reading for anyone seeking perspective and deeper understanding of life and the myriad ways that the world challenges our conscious mind. Though I am relatively unlearned of philosophy and much of the language that reviewers use here makes me feel a bit inadequate... I still encourage all those seeking new and fascinating perspective to read this book. It is unpretentious in its total decimation of almost all generally accepted ideas of the mainstream. In short it will b
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Oct 23, 2009
Philip
rated it:
Humans believe we are different than the other animals. However, John Gray rightly and powerfully trashes that belief system and he does it in a way that really tests everything you've learned and everything you've been indoctrinated in. Even his writing style will test you. Each sentence holds more information more questions and more answers than most books do. This is one of those good reads that tests your belief system and even tests the beliefs systems you didn't even realize you held. It's
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Jun 15, 2009
Kevin
rated it:
Grey dissects the humanist fallacies of progress and free will with keen wit. The origin of these delusions? It is the Christian religion, which exalts man above the other animals and, by creating a god in our image, authors a view of the universe as man's malleable plaything. Such a comfort is this idealistic way of thinking that it became rooted in nascent Western secularism, where it has become all the more toxic: out of a religious context, this belief in human power and human progress is no
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Sep 13, 2010
Steven
rated it:
There are two barriers to finishing Straw Dogs: First is its unrelenting grimness. John Gray's conclusions frequently make Hobbes' Leviathan sound like the Big Friendly Giant. A few reassuring observations:
"As the hope for a better world has grown, so has mass murder."
"Morality has hardly made us better people; but it has certainly enriched our vices."
"The labours of Sisyphus are a punishment. In working for progress we submit to a labour no les More...
"As the hope for a better world has grown, so has mass murder."
"Morality has hardly made us better people; but it has certainly enriched our vices."
"The labours of Sisyphus are a punishment. In working for progress we submit to a labour no les More...
May 03, 2010
I dunno, I don't really see what all the fuss is about. I guess don't really have any of the philosophical background to judge any of Gray's observations. There's something a bit iffy/superficial about this book (again saying this in in *complete* ignorance), I felt, a sort of self-satisfication in pronouncing these sort of "shocking" statements without any real meat. All soundbites.
It's highly probable that I'm wrong about this because I really don't have any background More...
It's highly probable that I'm wrong about this because I really don't have any background More...
Aug 06, 2011
Matt
rated it:
Straw Dogs is a strange book. The author certainly isn't reserved in some of his opinions & observations, and while his outlook can be refreshing, if only because of his stinging pessimism and unique perspectives. The chapters are extremely short and deal with various subjects, which makes the book seem to roll along rather quickly, but even so, the author's rather biting dreariness can make it drag on; even so, I recommend it for it's ability to make you think.
Apr 19, 2010
Karl
rated it:
Probably unfair, but as soon as Gray described evolution as 'blind chance,' which is to say, 3 pages in, I put it down. Evolution lacks a telos, yes; it's nonhierarchical, yes; but it does not proceed by 'chance.' If it were random, evolution would have nothing to do with habitat; it would have nothing to say about the constitutive presence of life with/in its evershifting mutually affected habitat; etc. Maybe there's more here? I don't know.
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Apr 01, 2008
Levi
rated it:
A book with a thousand ideas. The main downfall of Gray's work is that it's too short (the subtitle of "Thoughts" is pretty literal). The author comments on the current state of humanity by dissecting most of the major schools of thought that have dominated Western culture. At its best, the book attempts to knock away the absurd idea that humans can somehow surpass their animal nature. Anyone who wants some tasty food for thought should pick up this quick read and take notes. Who
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Apr 17, 2010
Frank
rated it:
A thought-provoking book that challenges one's assumptions about many things. The author's primary thesis is that humans are just another animal species, and therefore many of our beliefs about progress and society are misguided. I agree with many of his conclusions, as I believe in what used to be called man's fallen nature. However, I am reluctant to go to the extreme that the author does, in entirely discounting human consciousness and the side of our nature that inclines upward.
Jan 08, 2009
Steve
rated it:
I don't agree with everything in this book, but it's very interesting. It basically states that humanism is like all religions in which it places humans at the center of everything. Gray states that humans are really not that different from other animals and we will soon be wiped out by our own stupidity and our false pretense of progress. Cheery stuff!
Jul 27, 2011
This is one of the defining books in my intellectual development. I have have yet to read a single serious criticism of his work. After reading Gray I developed a passion for philosophy, and saw how shallow, unimportant and pretentious much French post-modern philosophy is. Whatever you think about John Gray, he's no pseud.
