Feline Philosophy Cats and the Meaning of Life

John Gray — 2020

The author of Straw Dogs, famous for his provocative critiques of scientific hubris and the delusions of progress and humanism, turns his attention to cats—and what they reveal about humans' torturous relationship to the world and to themselves. Cats do not need to be instructed in the good life. Obeying their nature, they are content with the life that it gives them. In humans, on the other hand, discontent with our nature seems only natural. The human animal never ceases striving for higher meaning. Cats, however, make no such effort. They are just happy to be themselves. That is why cats have no need for philosophy. They already know how to live. So writes John Gray in this incisive new book about the follies of human exceptionalism and what we can learn from the animals that have long captured our imaginations. The history of philosophy has been a "predictably tragic" succession of palliatives for human disquiet. Thinkers from Spinoza to Berdyaev have pursued the perennial questions of how to be happy, how to be good, and how to be loved—all of which held no relevance to their feline companions. In Feline Philosophy, Gray introduces us to some of these unburdened counterparts, showing how they approached issues of love and attachment, mortality, morality, and the Self: Montaigne's house cat, whose un-examined life may have been the one worth living; Meo, the Vietnam War survivor with an unshakable capacity for "fearless joy"; and Colette's Saha, the feline heroine of her subversive short story "The Cat", a parable about the pitfalls of human jealousy. The nature of cats, and what we can learn from it, is the subject of this book—and through it, Gray delivers a profound, thought-provoking meditation on just how vulnerable it is to be human.

Reviews

Deepika Ramesh@theboookdog

Jan 25, 2024

Feline Philosophy — Cats and The Meaning of Life is John Gray’s one-hundred page long answer to the questions: Why are we here? Are we more intelligent than non-human animals? Are we right about feeling superior? Where are we heading? How do we cure existential dread? While the long answer is the book, the short answer is: Simply live like cats. John Gray starts from the very beginning. 12,000 years ago, cats chose to cohabit with humans for reasons which didn’t stray from survival. Their proximity made ancient Egyptians believe that there weren’t many loyal companions like cats, and so, they were taken along on their final journey, the one to a higher realm. The ancient Egyptians also believed that cats were immortals; they were worshipped, celebrated, and trusted as superior beings who could guide mortals to afterlife. None of the adulation got into their heads because cats have always been selfless, they don’t recognise and acknowledge themselves as individuals, and so, they are free to live their lives by honouring their true nature without any anxiety about not existing. When the idea of selfhood is not appealing to them, how would death, passage of time, their limited lifespan make them neurotic? The argument is further strengthened by excerpts from books written by other philosophers and writers whose friends, love-interests, characters in their books were cats, by referring to what religions teach but which cats practise already, and by recalling incidents from lives of thinkers who did draconian experiments on cats to understand many facets of the human condition. From Patricia Highsmith to Tanizaki Junichiro, writers have been fascinated by how their characters were reduced and lifted by their feline companions. John Gray, with undivided focus, breaks all expectations and cruel judgement imposed on cats, steps on the shards holding a bullhorn to his mouth, and strongly recommends that we wouldn’t suffer, our minds wouldn’t be like wounds, we wouldn’t be so cared if we paused and observed this tiny animal who lives each moment like this universe is folded and stored in the moment. That’s the antidote.

Dora Tominic@dorkele

Disclaimer: this is not a review.

Bo, I just needed this.

"The meaning of life is a touch, a scent, which comes by chance and is gone before you know it."

This review contains a spoiler

Dani@erudani

Feb 25, 2022

** spoiler alert ** Call me biased, I don't care 🤣 El libro ofrece mucho más de lo que pensaba. Imaginé que era una trampa pues ¿qué persona fascinada por los gatos no querría un libro con este título? Y no, es mucho más que eso, en sus cortas páginas. Muy recomendado a quienes están interesados en la filosofía en general pero no saben por dónde empezar, este libro está repleto de comentarios sobre diferentes corrientes y bibliografía. Lo voy a releer muchas veces.