The Philosopher's Dog

I very much enjoyed this book, though it was slow going. It's quiet dense in ideas, and much more philiosophy than anecdote. I find myself musing over Gaita's notions, though, and thinking that we have moved to a different place in our attitudes towards animals since this book was written. I find myself not entirely convinced by the arguments put forward here, but then, I am not a philosopher.

I think I will dive into this book in the future for thinking material, especially as I continue to write my own fictional animals, to help me consider their outlook and position in life as we know it. Definitely a keeper!

While Raimond Gaita has an engaging enough style of writing, this book was a bit of a disappointment to me. I only got a C+ in Intro to Philosophy in college 40-some years ago, so a lot of his references to Descarte, Wittgenstein and Sorenson were just way over my head. I mean I could sorta follow his reasoning when he went off on these tangents, but I didn't really find it all that interesting, so I skimmed over those parts. And I'm glad I did, because when he did talk about his dogs and other pets, or about other books featuring dogs, I found his text very interesting. Was most pleased to see him cite J.M. Coetzee and his novel, Disgrace, which is a favorite of mine. And when he writes about his father, it gets even more interesting. show more Wish I could snag a copy of Gaita's memoir about his dad: Romulus, My Father. Unfortunately it seems to be out of print and only available used from Australia. I was made aware of The Philosopher's Dog by a brief reference to Gaita in Ted Kerasote's bestseller, Merle's Door. Although there's some rather tough slogging from the philosopher's end of things here, this is a book worth reading. - Tim Bazzett, author of the ReedCityBoy trilogy show less

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I liked how thoughtful it was and how it seemed torn between trying to be objective and what we actually experience in the beginning. The stories were nice, but simply not enough, and after a while he starts repeating himself. I agree with the final conclusion, but I think it could have taken a lot less long to come up with it. And perhaps could have had some more depth. The intent was good and after reading it I'm pretty sure I'd probably like the author, as a person. But that's not what you read this kind of book for. It was just a little too slow and the final conclusion could have been made after half this book already.