© Roger M Tagg 2019 - revised October 2023
John Gray (see his Wikipedia page) is one of the most highly respected philosophers of today. Previously I had only come across him as a critic of 'Enlightenment', but I realize that this was a simplistic view, as well as a very small part of his total ideas.
The book's subtitle is "A short enquiry into human freedom" - which is a tough topic, as 'freedom' carries so many different meanings, and means different things to different people.
The highlights in this web page only cover the first few pages of the book. The particular topic is the different sorts of 'freedom'. I have done highlights of the whole book elsewhere.
| Chapter | Page | Highlight | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-5 | The inspiration for Gray's (JG) marionette analogy is a short 1810 essay by Heinrich von Kleist 'On the Marionette Theatre', which is accessible in full on this web page. JG's reading of the gist of this is that 'consciousness' - in the sense of self-reflective thought, and seen as equivalent to the result of Adam and Eve eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge - damages the natural grace of a human being. The marionettes however have such grace by virtue of not having to worry about gravity - as well as by not having self-consciousness. | ||||||
| [RT: I am not sure that this grace equates to freedom, and there are a lot more facets to human life than a dancer's grace. It all reminds me of the saying in the Bible about the 'lilies of the field' - which as living things are perhaps nearer to humans than marionettes. The most frequent interpretation of the meaning of this bible parable seems to be "don't worry about your physical needs - the lilies look fine - just put your trust in God"] | ||||||||
| [RT: My natural inclination suggests a different reading of the relation of marionettes to freedom. The way I see it, a majority of us have ceded much of the control of our lives and out thoughts to a different type of string-manipulating puppet masters - namely advertisers, journalists, TV people, politicians, social media crazes, religious sermonisers, one's family and friends, and bullshitters in general. But this does not seem to be JG's line.] | ||||||||
| 6 | JG initially lists 3 alternative types of freedom:
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He then contrasts 3 further possible meanings:
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| 7 | He does mention freedom of choice, but says having food and shelter take higher priority than this. | |||||||
| He finally talks about "inner freedom" - the freedom to ignore the slings and arrows of our environment and to turn into oneself. | ||||||||
| This may become popular "... today, when belief in political solutions is fading and renascent religion contends with the ruling faith in science ...". [RT: Religion may be more renascent in the US bible belt, but not among people I personally meet. Anyhow, one doesn't have 'faith in science' - it's just a method of enquiry.] | ||||||||
| 8 | [RT: Maybe such uncertainties in people's environment over history encouraged monasticism, hermits, etc. Perhaps nowadays 'turning inward' involves retreating into TV and smartphone addiction, with their sports, soaps, cooking and reality programmes, or computer games and taking selfies.] |
John Gray is clearly very widely read and has thought a lot about the human condition. Although I was expecting - given the title of this book - a rather different approach, I found it a very interesting read. However, I am an amateur philosophy nut, and I don't think the book is accessible to the majority.
The links below lead to the components of PLOVER
| Brief intro (narrow screen) | Philosophy | Language | Ontology | Value | Evolution | Religion |
| Fuller intro (wide screen) | Philosophy | Language | Ontology | Value | Evolution | Religion |
Links to indexes and home pages
| Index of Roger's essays | Index of Roger's book highlights | Back to Roger's Re-think home | Back to tagg.org website |
This version updated on 6th October 2023