The 2002 bestseller is a work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human.
From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world.
Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. Gray argues that this humanist belief is an illusion.
In an introduction to the book, Moradkhani calls Gray’s book a radical philosophical survey, dedicated to breaking the taboo and attacking the dearest values of modern man, and offering readers a taste of a bitter truth.
“Straw Dogs” was named the book of the year in 2002 by English novelist J.G. Ballad in The Daily Telegraph. Some scholars, including Will Self, John Banville, Don Cupitt, Bryan Appleyard, and David Runciman, have also praised the book.
Gray is an English political philosopher with an interest in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas.
He retired in 2008 as a school professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer.
His credits also include “The Delusions of Global Capitalism” and “Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia”, in which he argues against free-market globalization and criticizes the utopian ideology in the modern world.
Source: Tehran Times