Find a copy in the library
Finding libraries that hold this item...
Details
| Genre/Form: | Popular works |
|---|---|
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Lars Fr H Svendsen; Matt Bagguley |
| ISBN: | 1789141591 9781789141597 |
| OCLC Number: | 1085591068 |
| Notes: | Translation of: Å forstå dyr : filosofi for hunde- og katteelskere. 2018. |
| Description: | 199 pages : 1 illustration ; 23 cm |
| Contents: | Wittgenstein's lion and Kafka's ape -- Language -- Seeing animal consciousness -- A human form -- Mind-reading -- Intelligence -- For now we see through a mirror, darky -- Time -- Can animals be understood? -- Surroundings -- To be an animal -- The dog -- The cat -- The octopus -- Loneliness and grief -- Do animals have morals? -- Humans and other animals -- Friendship. |
| Other Titles: | Å forstå dyr. |
| Responsibility: | Lars Svendsen ; translated from Norwegian by Matt Bagguley. |
Abstract:
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
"It is funny how often philosophers have been right about other animals, and how often they have been wrong. In this enlightening book, Svendsen takes us through a history of Western philosophical musings, from Wittgenstein's lion to Descartes's automatons, comparing them with current knowledge."--Frans de Waal, author of "Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves" "As knowledge about life, human and otherwise, grows greater and greater, we need a lucid guide through a thicket of questions that emerge when we try to understand animals, including the ones we are. Svendsen is that guide. . . . Clear as always and with a dose of characteristic humor thrown in, Svendsen draws on contributions from all the participant disciplines--philosophy, biology, and zoology, for instance, but also cognitive science and even literature--to address the many questions that arise when we take seriously the importance of understanding animals."--Jeffrey Kosky, author of "Arts of Wonder: Enchanting Secularity" "Svendsen gives full credit to what he calls 'the amateur's view of the animal' while engaging with, for example, Descartes's notion of the animal as a sort of machine--capable of responding to stimuli but not possessing consciousness as such, which requires language. (No cogito, ergo no cogitation.) A less extreme formulation would insist that we only have certain access to animal behavior; whatever mental phenomena (e.g., emotion, memory, intellect) we may attribute to that behavior can only be an anthropomorphic projection on our part. It is possible to advance such ideas in a public discussion but difficult to maintain them upon returning home to a pet. 'The amateur is, as the word quite literally means, one who loves, ' Svendsen writes, 'and that loving view in itself can reveal something that the distanced [view] cannot grasp.'" --Scott McLemee "Inside Higher Ed " Read more...
Tags
Similar Items
Related Subjects:(10)
- Animal psychology -- Popular works.
- Psychology, Comparative -- Popular works.
- Cats -- Psychology -- Popular works.
- Dogs -- Psychology -- Popular works.
- Human-animal communication -- Philosophy -- Popular works.
- Human-animal relationships -- Philosophy -- Popular works.
- Cats -- Psychology.
- Dogs -- Psychology.
- Human-animal relationships -- Philosophy.
- Psychology, Comparative.
