The Philosopher's Dog

The Philosopher's Dog is a mixture of storytelling, mostly about Gaita's own, and his father's, relationship with their domestic pets, and philosophical reflections on the stories he tells.

The stories are about animals and their character: about Jack the cockatoo, Orloff, Zac and Gypsy the dogs, about cats, spiders, butterflies, about his father's love and care for bees and his antipathy for insects. All are fascinating and touching stories in themselves. But more than this, Gaita's aim is to bring philosophy and story-telling together without turning the stories into long-winded philosophical examples and without compromising the philosophy for the sake of a good story.

The stories are used as a way in to philosophical questions about what it means to be a creature, about animal and human "consciousness", God, dignity, youth, old age, the relationship between science, philosophy and storytelling and about what it means to live an authentic individual life. A book such as this--personal recollections of family pets, family members, autobiography and serious philosophy, would have been difficult to write because of the dangers of sliding into a self-regarding, self-indulgent, sentimental mode are obvious. What makes this highly unusual book such an immensely enjoyable read is the fact that Gaita is a gifted writer, a deeply sensitive, imaginative man as well as a profound philosopher. --Larry Brown

Where John Gray's Straw Dogs confronts us with the unappeasable spectre of pessimistic skepticism via our animal nature and stops there, Gaita's book takes this position as a mere starting point. HIS philosophical dog just won't lie still...

After the first few pages you might think you are merely in for a bunch of sweet homely anecdotes about Gaita and his menagerie, but things soon get weighty, with a lovely take on Wittgenstein via an account of discussions with the author's daughter, plus several inspiring adventures in skepticism.

The weaker sections of the book, for me, were (my titles) 'Literature as Lebens-Philosophy' (too vague) and 'Rock-climbing as Existential Task' (like a philosopher's contribution to a mountaineers' monthly).

Reading this definitely made me interested in investigating his other works.