Straw Dogs (book)

Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals is a 2002 book by the philosopher John Gray. In the book, Gray attacks humanism and traces its origins back to Christianity. The book is divided into six chapters, which in turn are subdivided into short essays on different topics.

Summary

Gray attacks humanism as a worldview in conflict with the view of humanity as part of the evolution of life on the planet. He sees humanism as a secular version of the Christian view of humans as differentiated from the natural world. Gray blames humanism, and its central view of humanity, for much of the destruction of the natural world, and sees technology as just a tool by which humans will continue destroying the planet and each other. He advocates James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis, whereby the natural world self-regulates to maintain the conditions of life in the planet, without any special place for humanity in it.

Reception

Praise

Straw Dogs has received particular praise from English author J. G. Ballard, who wrote that the book "challenges most of our assumptions about what it means to be human, and convincingly shows that most of them are delusions" and described it "a powerful and brilliant book", "an essential guide to the new millennium" and "the most exhilarating book I have read since Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene."^[1] Another English author, Will Self called the book "a contemporary work of philosophy devoid of jargon, wholly accessible, and profoundly relevant to the rapidly evolving world we live in" and wrote "I read it once, I read it twice and took notes. I arranged to meet its author so I could publicize the book – I thought it that good."^[2]

In 2002 Straw Dogs was named a book of the year by J. G. Ballard in