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Description
Specifications
John Gray challenges the unfounded beliefs of thoughtful individuals and offers an incisive view of the human condition.
Starting with the assumption that humans do not hold a privileged position in relation to other animals and their natural environment, he launches a fierce attack on the humanitarian belief that sees humans as dominating the Earth, transcending all natural limits, and controlling their environment.
Our apparent inability to manage ourselves reveals a fundamental disjunction between the illusions of our consciousness and our true place in the natural order. For Gray, this disjunction is most pronounced in the Western tradition. Since the time of Plato, a series of abstractions have been introduced; between ourselves and the world.
The true, the beautiful, and the good have become the nonexistent goals of a futile pursuit. All of this has nourished the ultimate illusion: the self is a rational, continuous entity, an actor, distinct from all others. Yet, since the self is an illusion, morality is a contradiction or rather an aphrodisiac.
“It has not made us better people, but it has certainly enriched our perversions.” Morality is yet another abstraction between ourselves and the world. We are reluctant or even incapable of understanding that we not only share a kinship with other animals, but like them, we are weak in relation to both our individual and collective destiny, which leads us to a meaningless belief in progress.
People of action, who struggle for improvement, see themselves as heroes. Deep down, their belief that human will can transform the world denies their own mortality. The self that strives to dominate the world is merely a flicker on the surface of things.
The aim of life, Gray states, is not action but contemplation.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
Manufacturer
Product Details
- Author
- John Gray
- Publisher
- Okto
- Original Title
- Straw Dogs
- Skroutz Book Awards 2026
- -
- Language
- Greek
- ISBN-13
- 9789608942646
Edition
- Cover
- Soft
- Number of Pages
- 271
- Dimensions
- 14x21 cm
- Release Date
- 10/2008
- Publication Date
- 2008
Content
- Reader Level
- Classic Texts
Important information
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