Prof. dr hab. Beata Polanowska-Sygulska

Jagiellonian University in Kraków

English abstract: John Gray’s three controversial, widely discussed books, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002), The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Myths (2013) and The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom (2015), create a natural trilogy. They all have a similar structure, consisting of a kaleidoscope of ideas, digressions, associations and recurring motifs. This article provides a brief analysis and a thorough critique of this trilogy. The strong and the weak points of the most recent volume are emphasized. A number of objections, reservations and doubts concerning the ideas presented in the three books are formulated. Critical arguments relating to, among other things, Gray’s inconsistent statements on the phenomenon of tragedy, the sources of humanism and its respect for the truth, the issue of freedom and the author’s alleged rejection of traditional morality are put forward.

Keywords: humanism, liberalism, morality, freedom, progress, truth

Language: English

Published: Number 3(32)/2022, pp. 72-87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2022.3.72

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