Cat Philosophy. The meaning of life for cats

The book is based on a feeling of deep gratitude to cats as perhaps the only type that helps us - in our deep loneliness in the world - to understand our own animal nature.

Author of "straw dogs", known for his provocative criticism of scientific arrogance and errors of progress and humanism, now turns his attention to cats and their painful attitude to the world and to themselves.

The history of philosophy, predictably and tragically or comically, was a series of drugs designed to relieve human anxiety. From Spinoza to Berdyaev, philosophers solved eternal problems: how to be happy, how to be good, how to be loved and how to live in a world of changes and losses. But, perhaps, we have something to learn from the animal, which most amazes our imagination - cats - than the greatest thinkers of the world.

The philosopher John Gray found in cats a way of life, free from anxiety and self -awareness, showing how cats embody answers to such important questions as love and affection, death, morality and self. Montaena’s home cat, whose life may have been worth living, Meo, who survived the war in Vietnam, and Sakha, the cat Collett, became the heroines of the subversive short story "Cat", parables about the pitfalls of human jealousy.

Studying the nature of cats and what we can learn from them, Gray offers deep and forcing to think about meditation on the stupidity of human exclusivity and our fundamental weakness and loneliness. And he shows that we can survive the crisis, and the transformation, and adapt to changing circumstances, as cats always did.

Montaine wrote: “When I play with my cat, who knows if she is more amused by me than I am!” We have no evidence that people have ever really “domesticated” cats. Rather, at some point the cats realized that people could be useful to them. In this book, John Gray is trying to deal with the philosophical and moral problems of very strange ties between people and these wonderful animals. Based on the centuries -old philosophical heritage - from Montean to Schopenhauer - he analyzes what relations we had with this very unusual pet.

The Englishman John Gray is considered one of the greatest Pesseminists of our time. In particular, he argued that such an important idea for the human existence, as the uniqueness of each person and faith in the best future, are just neurotic myths created in order to fill the terrible emptiness of life and the inevitability of death. However, not everything is so gloomy. In the end, in human life there are cats in which we can learn how to live and die. It is these issues that Gray devotes his new book.

The author claims that people themselves are "human animals" and can learn to live virtuously, mirroring the lifestyle of cats. The main thesis of the author is that virtuous life is not the life that they are trying to live, but the one that they lived. <...> Here a cat can be our teacher, because it never yearns for a life that has not lived. ” This is because: "Life is an unfinished life." In other words, cats are always satisfied with themselves. Unlike them, people are looking for happiness only in order to get away from themselves.

In this, religion, mysticism and philosophy help them. The source of philosophy is self -doubt. This is because, says the author, that the whole world is a dangerous and strange place for man, and religion is an attempt to make an inhuman universe fit into human life. Gray believes that although philosophers often consider religious beliefs as farphysical speculations far from their metaphysical speculation, religion and philosophy have a common goal. That is, they strive to reflect the ongoing anxiety about what it means to be a person. Cats, on the other hand, do not suffer from abstract anxiety if they are not in danger of danger or if they go to an unfamiliar place, and do not need metaphysical thoughts.

In the proof of this, the author turns to the history of philosophy (hence the links to Rena Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, Michel de Montaenya, Blaza Pascal and even Nikolai Berdyaev) and recalls Plato"s teachings about the form of an unchanged idea that forever existed in nature " He says. According to Gray, this is nothing more than a "mystical vision in which the human value is protected from death, and Gray says, in principle, there is nothing that philosophy should teach, unless a person realizes his attitude to death.

Gray notes that the absence of abstract thinking in the cat is not a sign of its inferiority, but rather speaks of her freedom of mind.

If we turn to the origins of philosophy, it is impossible not to mention the name of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Austrian philosopher of the first half of the 20th century. Wittgenstein, like his cat Gray, rejected all the former metaphysical philosophical traditions and in his philosophical searches was more reliable for mathematics and logic. It is not surprising that Gray remembered Wittgenstein"s words when he discussed the contrast between the human and feline worldview.

“If by eternity you understand not an endless temporary duration, but timelessness, then the one who lives the present lives always.”

Therefore, Gray writes:

“Since people think that they can imagine the end of their life, they believe that they know more about death than other animals. But what people call their death is an image created in their minds of the awareness of the past tense. Knowing their life only as they live, cats are mortal immortal, who think about death only when it approaches them. It is easy to understand how they began to worship. ”

Reviews:

At first glance, the "philosophy of cats" seems to be the starting point of Gray. But in the book it is very Greevsky showed that this search itself can be doomed. ...... Gray has always been a sharp critic who deftly deconstructing highly spiritual ideas and their unforeseen consequences. "

Dennifer Saley, The New York Times



"Brief but serious controversy, attacking most of the Western tradition of moral thought. It is worth reading, even if you do not like cats, or even especially if you do not love them.

-bort Armstrong, Financial Times



Academic world is a torment for academicians. Few want or can state complex ideas so that it is interesting to non -academicians. John Gray is one of those rare intellectuals. Fat philosophy. The book "Philosophy of cats: cats and the meaning of life" have a wide attractiveness. It is even more impressive that she makes the reader seriously think about radical ideas ... ... Binding stories and facts about cats with philosophy, Gray encourages serious thoughts, without telling the reader how to reason or what to think. ..... real pleasure from the "philosophy of cats" lies in the very experience of her reading. The book is not trying to "prove anything" ".

-Paul J. D"Ambrosio, Los Angeles Review of Books



This book is closely repeated by what philosopher John Gray has taught us the last few decades about how to live life. Although his previous works contained random hints that he considers a good life, this book is his most direct attack on this topic. If, like me, you consider him one of the most important thinkers of all time, you will be interested to know what he wants to say. . In our pious times, his attack on the cheap comfort of moral conviction is invigorating. "

-James Marriott, The Times



"Fans of cats will like this triumph of cat myths, from ancient Egyptian to modern meowing livestock, and the inveterate Gray fans will be reassured by ordinary links to the cult of immortality, Hobbes and the Gulag.

-charls errow, The Washington Post



"Intelligent cat"s pajamas. ....... Gray Book is ideal for describing the alienated strangeness of the pandemic. "

-It Adams, The Observer



"In the most delightful Nietzschean sense, she is fascinating, funny, insightful and timely."

-mark Rowlands, New Statesman



"Curious and curious. Gray freely moves from one writing style to another, including some biographies in pots, which are often found in popular philosophical works. But he also tells the story of the famous cat, delves into the history of evolution and demonstrates a clear understanding of his subject. This book is primarily Oda to cats, and it seems that Gray learned to find pleasure in them. " -Kirkus, Inc.

-kirkus

"A wonderful mixture of lightness and depth, bitterness and tenderness, wit and lamentation."

-Jezin o"grady, The Telegraph



Gray at the right time hurts the soft places of the human psyche and sticks his sharp teeth into some of our most cherished ideas about oneself. "

-Ian Graund, The Times Literary Supplement



"ridiculous, playful, hilarious and instructive at the same time.

-John Benville, Irish Times



"The magnificent work".

-Katrin Hughes, Literary Review



Gray work convincingly proves the inexorable irrationality of our type and raises questions about humanistic beliefs that should be especially relevant for those who adhere to left -wing political views. " Gray shows a deep interest in the inhuman world, which focuses his criticism of humanism, like fangs and claws ...

-Luiver hall, "dangerous minds".



A book for philosophers and lovers of philosophical cats. Many annotations for further discoveries. "

-Booklist



"This book is not trying to prove anything. Gray overcame difficulties and now skillfully plays with philosophical reasoning. -Booklist

-Paul J. D"Ambrosio, La Review of Books



Most of the brilliant book of Gray has nothing to do with cats. Gray is in the focus of the attention of Gray - insatiable (and in the vast majority of cases of barren) attempts by mankind to find happiness and our inability to think about the illusion of morality .... His cats are ten commandments are ultimately intended for us. ”

-Derek Veles, Big Think magazine



Quotes:

"Most of the history of philosophy consists of worshiping linguistic science fiction. Cats do not control the words, relying only on the fact that they can touch, smell and see. ”

“If by eternity you understand not an endless temporary duration, but timelessness, then the one who lives the present lives always.”

“The division that we instinctively draw between people and animals was felt in ancient Egypt not so much, and the categories of“ animals ”actually did not exist. <...> Theological treatise, which was recorded under Shabako (716–702 BC), but which, perhaps, was compiled in the third millennium BC, describes the heart and language of the god-creator of the Pta, present in in “All the gods, all people, all cattle, all worms, in everything that lives.” Just like people, animals were created by the creator god, worshiped him (in his own way), and he took care of them. In some exceptional cases, their connection with God could be even more direct than that of people. ”

“Cats symbolized the statement of life in a world belonging to the dead. The Egyptian religion reacted to the prospect of death with preparation for life in another world, but it needed cats in order to maintain a sense of life in the kingdom of the afterlife. While the cats are not on the verge of death, they only know life, and in their life death does not manage them in any way. The Egyptians had good reason to wish for cats to join them on a trip around the afterlife. When it came to death, people and cats were in the same boat. No one in ancient Egypt believed that people have a soul, but cats have no. But if someone’s soul does not know death at all, then the cat soul is closer to immortality as much as the human soul cannot even imagine