The Philosopher's Dog (Hardcover)

God went forth to create the world, and he took his dog with him
Every so often, a book is written that has the potential to shift the thinking of an entire generation. This is just such a book. The Philosopher's Dog is Raimond Gaita's most personal work to date. Lovingly crafted, it marries philosophy with story-telling, a love for animals with a love for fellow humans, and a thirst for knowledge with a long cool draught of respect.
Many of the stories in this remarkable book are about animals Gaita himself has known: Jack the cockatoo, Orlaff the dog and Tosca the cat. Some will already be familiar to those who have read Gaita's critically acclaimed Romulus My Father. Stories about these animals are interweaved with reflections on how animals think, hope, trust and feel. What does Gypsy think about when she sits on her mat gazing out to sea? Is it mistaken to attribute the concepts of love, devotion, loyalty, grief, bravery or friendship to animals? Why do we care so much for some creatures and so little for others? Drawing on the work of writers such as J.M. Coetzee and Hannah Arendt and philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and René Descartes, Gaita offers a new way of thinking about our fellow creatures. And if we begin to think in this new way, maybe, just maybe, we'll begin to respect animals, and through them, ourselves.