‘Humanity’ does not exist. There are only humans, driven by conflicting needs and illusions, and subject to every kind of infirmity of will and judgement.
John Gray, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, London, 2002, p. 12
Category Archives: John Gray
John Gray
Pre-Christian philosophers such as the Epicureans speculated about free will. But it only became a central issue in western philosophy with the rise of Christianity and has never been prominent in non-western philosophies that do not separate humans so radically from other animals. When secular thinkers ponder free will and consciousness they nearly always confine themselves to humans, but why assume these attributes are uniquely human? In taking for granted a categorical difference between humans and other animals these rationalists show their view of the world has been formed by faith. The comedy of militant unbelief is in the fact that the humanist creed it embodies is a by-product of Christianity.
John Gray, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, London, 2007, p. 266
John Gray
As commonly practised, philosophy is the attempt to find good reasons for conventional beliefs.
John Gray, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, London, 2002, p. 37