The Philosopher’s Dog - vendido!

by Raimond Gaita
The Text Publishing Company Australia
224 pp.

Rights sold to:
*** Brasil: Bertrand Brasil ***
World rights: Text Publishing
Commonwealth ex-ANZ: Routledge (April 2004)
Netherlands: Ambo | Anthos
Japan: Shueisha
USA: Random House (July 2004)
Germany: Rogner & Bernhard
Taiwan: Bookery Publishing Company
China: People’s Literature Publishing House
Turkey: Dost Kitabevi Yayinlari


From the Inside Flap
The philosopher Raimond Gaita has always been fascinated by animals– their obvious intelligence and disturbing brutality, their uncanny responsiveness to our moods and needs, the deep feelings they elicit from us and seem to return. In this marvelous, luminous book, Gaita trains the lens of philosophy on the mystery and beauty of the animals he has known and loved best. The Philosopher’s Dog is one of those rare works that engage the heart from the very first paragraph and haunt the mind long after one has finished reading.

What does Gaita’s dog, Gypsy, think about while she sits on her mat gazing out to sea for hours on end? Why did the irascible cockatoo Jack greet Gaita’s father with kisses each morning but bite everyone else? How can we acknowledge that animals are sentient and yet deny that they have consciousness? Is it possible to love animals and still eat meat? In contemplating questions like these, Gaita weaves together personal stories–inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking accounts about the animals he and his family members have sheltered–with the reflections and analysis of a professional philosopher.

A graceful, engaging stylist, Gaita is perfectly lucid as he grapples with great thinkers through the ages–from Socrates to Wittgenstein, Descartes to Hannah Arendt. And yet, as important as formal philosophy has been to him, Gaita frankly acknowledges that he has learned much about the nature of life from Gypsy and Jack and his courageously arrogant cat Tosca. In the end, he argues that love should be the essence of our bond with animals, the critical factor that guides how we treat them and think about their place in our world.

In pondering the meaning and morality of his relationships with animals, and with the natural world more generally, Raimond Gaita has created a surprising masterpiece, a book of startling insights, spellbinding stories, meticulous observations, and wise reflection. At once engrossing and thought-provoking, The Philosopher’s Dog is a supremely enjoyable book.

Book description:
In this marvellous book Raimond Gaita tells stories about dogs and cats, about bees and butterflies. Many of these stories describe animals he has known: Jack the cockatoo, Gypsy the dog and Tosca the street-wise cat. In focussing on them and others, in the context of family life, Gaita asks questions about how animals think 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?
Gaita’s discussion ranges from writers such as J. M. Coetzee and Hannah Arendt to philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Rene Descartes. In offering a different way of thinking about animals, he suggests that it is love which gives us the best model for the respect we owe them.
Filled with inspirational stories, with reflections on how we respond to everything from spiders to mountains, The Philosopher’s Dog is moving, sometimes funny, and always thought-provoking.
The Philosopher’s Dog is above all a book about our creatureliness and its place in the understanding of our humanity.

Praise for The Philosopher’s Dog
Shortlisted, Douglas Stewart Prize, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2003. Shortlisted, Age Book of the Year Awards 2003.

“Dog lovers endlessly philosophize about their love for their canine companions. A compelling book on the subject from an actual philosopher with the brainpower, dog love, and writing skill of Raimond Gaita is timely. Gaita understands and explores the notion that animals and our own humanity are inextricably linked. Great fodder for anybody who loves animals and ponders our complex relationships with them.”
–JON KATZ, author of A Dog Year and The New Work of Dogs

“In everything that Raimond Gaita writes we sense a generous heart at work, as well as lucid intelligence. The Philosopher’s Dog is a book to give to the kind of person who asks what philosophy is for.”
–J. M. COETZEE, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2003

“Rai Gaita is a dog lover, a philosopher, and a gifted, sensitive writer. In this immensely readable and enjoyable book, he mixes the personal with the philosophical and the anecdotal with the profound to produce a series of illuminating reflections on what it means to be a creature and, more important, what it means to be fully human.”
–RAY MONK, author of Bertrand Russell

’Enjoyable and rather beautiful book ... charming [and] genuinely illuminating.’ - The Guardian

’Provocative and liberating.’ - The Telegraph
’An outstanding exercise in seeing things clearly.’ - The Independent

’The book possesses a peculiar charm and at the same time displays a welcome sinewy toughness in its thinking.’ - John Banville, Irish Times

’Poignant and illuminating.’ - Roger Scruton, Sunday Telegraph

’Gaita tells his stories with tremendous charm and literary skill which is very moving ... exhilarating.’ - Scottish Daily Mail

’It’s deep and challenging stuff…’ Age

’The Philosopher’s Dog is that truly rare thing: an accessible book of philosophy undiminished in intellectual rigour.’ Age

‘Clever and energetic.’ Australian

“The stories are used as a way in to philosophical questions about what it means to be a creature, about animal and human "consciousness", God, dignity, youth, old age, the relationship between science, philosophy and storytelling and about what it means to live an authentic individual life. A book such as this-–personal recollections of family pets, family members, autobiography and serious philosophy, would have been difficult to write because of the dangers of sliding into a self-regarding, self-indulgent, sentimental mode are obvious. What makes this highly unusual book such an immensely enjoyable read is the fact that Gaita is a gifted writer, a deeply sensitive, imaginative man as well as a profound philosopher.” --Larry Brown

Big Issue, Australia
’An enchanting and pellucid meditation on animals... thoughtful, touching and utterly admirable.’

Daily Mail
Gaita tells his stories with tremendous charm and literary skill which is very moving.

The Independent
The real topic of The Philosopher’s Dog is not animal existence but human love.....[it is] an outstanding exercise in seeing things clearly. --.

The Guardian
enjoyable and rather beautiful book...charming [and] genuinely illuminating.

’Provocative and liberating.’ - The Telegraph

’The book possesses a peculiar charm and at the same time displays a welcome sinewy toughness in its thinking.’ - John Banville, Irish Times

’Poignant and illuminating.’ - Roger Scruton, Sunday Telegraph ’Gaita tells his stories with tremendous charm and literary skill which is very moving ... exhilarating.’ - Scottish Daily Mail


From Booklist
Although billed as addressing what we learn about animals from our relationships with them, this discursive inquiry is equally concerned with what we learn about ourselves. Gaita, a professor of moral philosophy at King’s College, London, begins with stories about his dog, Gypsy, and the street cat, Tosca, that often teased Gypsy (eventually with catastrophic results). Extrapolating from these events, Gaita explores what (if anything) animals know, sense, and feel. As he reflects on how and why animals often become as close to humans as family members, his focus switches to humanity’s view of itself and whether, from our point of view, we are the center of the universe. Despite the audience-friendly title, this is by no means pop philosophy. Gaita’s writing is deep and provocative but requires a commitment from the reader. Those willing to make it will learn much about their relationships with their pets and with each other. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Publishers Weekly
Offering entertaining animal stories and delicate philosophical reflections on them, University of London philosopher Gaita (Romulus, My Father) begins with stories of animals from his rural childhood (Jack the cockatoo, Orloff the greyhound) and his adult life (Gypsy the German shepherd, Tosca the cat). As the book progresses, the stories become less dominant as serious philosophy takes the fore. On whether dogs feel sensations, for example, Gaita argues (on Wittgensteinian grounds) that "there is no room for serious doubt" that they do. Why we should pay respect to dead animals or care about butterflies and bees; the common "creatureliness" of people and animals; and how someone who loves animals can kill and eat them—all are issues that are raised at a leisurely pace. Throughout, Gaita develops the concept of a "realm of meaning" rooted in "the understanding of the heart." Literature, including stories, he argues, affords special access to this realm (and thus provides a rationale for the plan of the book). (...) (W)hat comes through most clearly is Gaita’s appreciation for "the generosity with which animals give themselves to us... and the grace they bring to our lives."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


About the Author

Raimond Gaita was born in 1946 in Germany. He is a Professor of Moral Philosophy, King’s College, University of London, and Professor of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. His books include Romulus, My Father, The Philosopher’s Dog, A Common Humanity, andWhy the War was Wrong (as editor and contributor).