I think I went into this book thinking it would have more of a focus on cats, my own fault! What this book really is, is an exploration of philosophy with the occasional reference to cats to back up John Gray's points. It's a fairly accessible read though, and I would definitely recommend it to someone who wanted an overview of philosophical thought through the ages.

Not quite what I was expecting, but never the less I enjoyed this once I got into reading it. Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the advance copy

Oh no... Tricked!!! This wasn't about cat philosophy at all. It's a trap disguised as a mouse-flavoured morsel. Such armchair pop philosophy would have zero interest to a cat.
"The most accomplished monkey cannot draw a monkey, this too only man can do; just as it is also only man who regards his ability to do this as a distinct merit." (Georg Chistoph Lichenberg)

For what is essentially a history of philosophy, it was ironic to find it ignored basic critical reasoning: "A therefore B" is not the same as "B therefore A". Although a good attempt at making philosophy more delectable to a mass audience, the catisms were gimmicky.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the reading copy.

My thanks to the publishers for providing me with a review copy of this book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

There are some remarkable cats who feature in its pages such as the fiercely joyful survivor, Meo, from Vietnam, who flourished wherever he found himself.

A surprising list of ailurophile authors and philosophers appear too, including Samuel Johnson, Patricia Highsmith and Doris Lessing. And among the notable names, there are some unforgettable stories of humans and cats - Tanizaki and his story about Lily, Berdyaev and Muri and Mary Gaitskill and Gattino.

I also enjoyed the advice which cats might playfully give us at the end of the book.

Unfortunately there are also some stories of terrible human cruelty to cats, perhaps in part explained by people living in fear and suppressed rage maddened by a creature which lives by affirming itself in perfect freedom. It would be nice to throw Descartes out of a window to see if he was still thinking afterwards, though.

As I’ve found with a previous Gray book, an accessible account of philosophical thought through the ages gets included along the way, in this case as we notice the ways in which cats are different from humans. This is mainly because cats are not obsessed with and made anxious by their mortality - they don’t think about it at all-and they appear to be unburdened by a sense of self. They are just themselves all the time.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I must not be very self aware myself as I am not at all prone to looking to philosophy or religion to assuage anxiety. Luckily my normal state is happy and it seems to me there are enough other people worrying about the future for me to leave it to them unless I see that I can do something specific about it.

When I happened upon Straw Dogs by the same author more or less by accident, I found it rather enervating. So I conclude that it must be the cats whose influence makes this book enjoyable and interesting reading contrary to my expectations.

Read it and then sleep for the joy of sleeping!

I’ve read it over a few days - the book is well written and easy to read, despite the high density of philosophers per page - and during those exact few days I felt quite blue.

It could be a coincidence - after all, we have enough going on to be depressed about, but I also see a correlation between my mood and the main message of the book: we’re all gonna die and you should make peace with that. Like a cat.

John Gray writes about human self-consciousness as a curse: knowing our individual stories aren’t eternal is the root of all unhappiness and cats simply don’t have that huge Sword of Damocles hanging over them. Or rather it does hang, but they don’t think about it. They live in a moment.

There’s quite a lot of reading material to take away from this book - John describes short stories and novellas written by different authors, which have cats as main characters. Philosophical theories of Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Descartes, Nietzsche and many others are discussed from the viewpoint of man vs. nature. Final chapters amusingly offer a list of advice on how to enjoy life like a cat does.

But overall... it is quite depressing. This whole carpe diem attitude and letting go of ego and not asking questions you can’t handle. Well I’d like to believe there is a purpose to everything! I agree with John that we are no better than animals and our understanding of the world is quite limited, but that is exactly why we should not be making sad conclusions based on that linear understanding. I don’t agree that love is something basic and distracting, that all there is to life is life itself and nothing more. I guess we live in different worlds, and I’m glad I only visited his for a brief time. But we do share a fascination for cats, and on that common ground I would like to part.

#felinephilosophy

In Feline Philosophy, John Gray turns his attention to cats―and what they reveal about humans' torturous relationship to the world and to themselves. The history of philosophy has been a predictably tragic or comical 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, how to be loved, and how to live in a world of change and loss. But perhaps we can learn more from cats--the animal that has most captured our imagination--than from the great thinkers of the world.

Philosopher Gray discovers in cats a way of living that is unburdened by anxiety and self-consciousness, showing how they embody answers to the big questions 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.

Exploring the nature of cats, and what we can learn from it, Gray offers a profound, thought-provoking meditation on the follies of human exceptionalism and our fundamentally vulnerable and lonely condition. He charts a path toward a life without illusions and delusions, revealing how we can endure both crisis and transformation, and adapt to a changed scene, as cats have always done. This is a fascinating, engrossing and intriguing book which is accessible and presents so much food for thought that I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Allen Lane for an ARC.

My thanks to Penguin Books U.K. - Allen Lane for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life’ by John Gray in exchange for an honest review.

I adore cats and so was immediately drawn to the description of this book even if I am not that well versed in philosophy. I found it quite accessible.

“When I play with my cat, how do I know she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?” - Montaigne

In this amazing book John Gray examines the philosophical and moral issues around the unique relationship between humans and cats.

Gray points out that there is no evidence that humans ever domesticated cats though plenty that cats were the ones to make the decision to be domesticated. This is something obvious to anyone who has ever been adopted by a cat.

He includes a number of inspiring anecdotes about individual cats. However, I will admit that some of the accounts of historical anti-cat practices were distressing and made me both angry and sad.

While quite a short book Gray covers a great deal of territory within its pages. He weaves in the ideas of various philosophers creating an enjoyable and thought-provoking work. I was especially impressed with the chapter ‘Ten Feline Hints on How to Live Well’.

I read some passages aloud to my cat and she agreed with me that it was a five paw read!

I also think that it would be a fun and unusual gift for philosophically minded cat lovers.

It was an interesting and thought provoking book, a book of philosophy featuring some cats.
I liked the style of writing and even if I don't always agree with the writer I can say that all the ideas where interesting and made me reflect.
I liked the cast stories but some description of animal abuse where a bit hard on me.
It's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Of course, cats don't have philosophy (at least, not as we know it) so this book is really about human philosophy and what we can learn from cats. There are some disturbing mentions of torture and cruelty to cats, which will probably upset a few people (it upset me, but I continued reading). "Feline Philosophy" includes the stories if some "famous" cats, a brief examination of our lives with them (notably theories as to why some people hate cats), and some remarkable lines that my cats seemed impressed with (yes, I read some sentences aloud to them!). Well worth a read for cat lovers.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Hello,

Thank you for the book, I enjoyed it and have left a positive review at Goodreads.

Firstly goodreads has filed the book under the wrong john gray (Men are from Mars).

Secondly there is a typo in the title of point number six in the top ten that concludes the book.

Thirdly the kindle version you made available was corrupted and mixed the same numbers throughout the text on most pages. As a result I had to read it on a tablet screen as a PDF.

Thanks again,

Marcus

A nice book for cat lovers.



Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.
Being owned by a cat, I was attracted to this title merely because it had Feline in it's title. I struggled slightly with the content of the first part, there were few references to cats but lots of reference to philosophers - which went a bit over my head. However the second part of the book was more cat related and had references to stories, both fictional and real, about cats. My favourite part was if cats could give hints on how to live less awkwardly. The second of the list I should really send to a friend who is always complaining she has no time - funny enough she is owned by three cats.
In the end I quite enjoyed this.

It's probably my fault but this isn't what I expected: it's more a 'philosophy plus cats' book with a dose of self-helpy pop psychology 'what we can learn from the nature of cats' alongside. It's very short so is easily read fast. I'm not quite sure who it's aimed at: cat lovers who want a quick primer on aspects of western philosophy? Readers of self-help books on living a meaningful life who also love cats? Hmm, just not sure...