Someone gave me the Feline Philosophy book, but I had never heard of JG.
John Gray had a new book come out last year on cats. Once again, this charlatan has been given a platform to promote his pseudo-philosophy. I read Gray's book Straw Dogs in December, and cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone gives this man any attention at all.
The part of the book which most galled me was his section on the history of philosophy. Gray doesn't just willfully misread Heidegger and Wittgenstein: he also engages in middle-school antics with Schopenhauer (whom he likes) and Nietzsche (whom he dislikes), painting Schopenhauer as an edgy radical stud ("...seems to have been sexually highly active") and Nietzsche as a stupid virgin loser ("...he never had a lover and very likely hardly any sex life") who somehow died of syphilis.
As for misreading Heidegger, Gray seems to think that Dasein and "thrownness" are one and the same (in fact the word translated as "thrownness" in Heidegger is Geworfenheit) and that this "thrownness" is essentially the same thing as Christian Original Sin. He reduces Heidegger's existential philosophy to Christianity under a different name, and in doing so reveals that he, like so many others, either doesn't have the time or the will (das Wille?) to read Heidegger properly.
Gray ties together Heidegger and Wittgenstein in a sentence which should make anyone this side of Bishop Berkeley laugh: "Later philosophers such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein...claimed that the world is a construction of human thought". He goes on to misunderstand what Wittgenstein meant when he said "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him." Wittgenstein's point is summarized as "meaning is use": a language is only as good as what it is used for. (EDIT: This is probably not a good summary. Wittgenstein was arguing against older analytic theories of language, including his own, which took the view that language acquired meaning through their correspondence to the world.) Gray takes this to mean that Wittgenstein thinks lions are stupid.
The section on morality is particularly bland. Gray evidently thinks he's the first person in history to suggest that morality may not be absolute and ordained, and he makes no effort to discover whether philosophical arguments against this position have any merits. Instead he engages in tasteless literary manipulation by describing scenes from Nazi death camps and lynchings in the American south. In this his tactics aren't dissimilar from pseudo-historians writing books about the Spea
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John Gray is an atheist philosopher who frequently attacks "New Atheism" and has written books attacking humanism. Today he has a long piece in the UK Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/03/what-scares-the-new-atheists
What does /r/TrueAtheism think of his arguments? Is there any truth in them?
Personally I find this kind of attack somewhat puzzling coming from another atheist. It is easy to dismiss it as sophisticated trolling (I'm sure The Guardian loves this kind of article as it will result in lots of traffic for their site) but I suppose we should consider it a sincere viewpoint rather that just dismissing it out of hand.
This guy earned his phony doctorate from a mail order diploma mill that was forced to cease operations by the state of California. It was also ordered to refund tuition money to all students who requested it. He has also been ordered by the FDA to stop making false claims about the supplements he sells.
“Doctor” Gray, shame on you.
Column Title: "Fade to Gray: Happy birthday to me"
Appeared in the Saratogian on: December 25, 2021
Word count: 862 words.
Excerpt: On this exact date in 1962, a lovely woman named Jane Gray summoned her husband in their South Troy home and said, "It's time." A little while later the Gray family, which resided at 284 Mann Ave., welcomed their fourth and final child.
Me.
I usually hide from people when my birthday is because I don't want or need any more attention. Beaming into people's homes on the TV news five nights a week for 32 years gets one plenty of that. Kids ask me if it's fun being "famous" and I tell them two things. First, outside of the 518-area code nobody knows who I am. Second, it is often a hassle being someone people recognize because you can't be yourself. By that I mean, on weekends (when I'm not on TV) I enjoy wearing ratty old sweatpants and t-shirts with paint spots on them from some previous house project five years ago.
My wife sees me in these outfits and loses her mind because she knows someone will see me and roll their eyes, saying, "How much does that TV guy make and he's out here in a stained shirt. Oh, the humanity!"
Don't judge me please. Often if I'm wearing a despicable shirt it's because there is an emotional attachment to it. Example- I used to have a blue sweatshirt that said "University at Buffalo" on the front. I purchased it when my oldest son was a freshman at the school. I also wore it when I had two German shepherd puppies with those tiny razor-sharp teeth, so the sleeves have numerous holes in them.
To the casual observer it looks like a torn shirt, but to me it always reminded me of my son and dogs. I got a good seven years out of the shirt before my wife forced me to say goodbye to it.
By now you've done the math and know that I'm 59 years old today. It stinks having a late December birthday and not for the reasons you think. NO, I did not get cheated out of Christmas presents, quite the opposite. Often my parents would team up with Santa and I'd get some expensive gift that was for both Christmas and birthday, something I couldn't have gotten otherwise.
Rating: 0/5 stars
Sincerely,
Richard Nixon
Wanting to sell a never used, never carried Kizer John Gray S.L.T. (Ki4474A1). Brand new, with all original packaging. $150 shipped. Not looking to trade as I'm trying to slim down my collection. Thank you for looking! Specs are as follows:
Blade length: 3.5"
Blade material: S35VN
Blade style: Drop point
Grind: Hollow
Handle: Titanium
Edge Condition: Factory (never used)
Ownership: First
Disassembled: Never
It is puzzling to see philosophical pessimists, including antinatalists, who have a sort of Comtean, 'belief in belief' standpoint towards organized religion. John N. Gray is probably the most well known public intellectual to take this position. Gray's most famous work is his Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. Like Thomas Ligotti, he portrays humans as a species of delusional nothings that must constantly distract themselves from the true nature of their existence. (Ligotti has made the comparison between his TCATHR and Gray's Straw Dogs) But in his essays for the New Statesman, Gray argues that religion is a positive influence on society.
I have noticed a few people on antinatalist blogs and forums who buy into Gray's analysis. The basic argument is that people need something that gives them hope or consolation, which only religion can provide.
Some people point to countries like the UK and Japan, where the death of religion has created vapid, materialistic societies that are just rotting away. It's certainly true that when societies have no shared values, people focus solely on satisfying their materialistic desires.
Yet, as much as much as I dread the prospect of the living in a materialistic hellhole like the UK, and as much as I hate bubbly cheerleader-atheists like Dawkins, I am glad that I live in a time when religion is on the decline. When religion is forced down people's throats, there isn't an opportunity for people to discuss their true feelings about life. If David Benatar had lived in the 17th century, he probably would have been burned at the stake by religious authorities.
I think for antinatalists, organized religion is a huge obstacle that's preventing us from achieving our dream of ending suffering. But at the same time, most of us are intelligent enough to know that religion won't vanish just because we're angry at it. So how should we approach organized religion? Should we support the New Atheists? Should we try to revive Catharism? Should we accept that some people will always need hope in order to survive in a depressing world?
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