• Feline Philosophy

  • Cats and the Meaning of Life
  • By: John Gray
  • Narrated by: Neil Gardner
  • Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Feline Philosophy  By  cover art

Feline Philosophy

By: John Gray
Narrated by: Neil Gardner
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.07

Buy for $13.07

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

'When I play with my cat, how do I know she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?' (Montaigne)

There is no real evidence that humans ever 'domesticated' cats. Rather, it seems that at some point cats saw the potential value to themselves of humans. John Gray's wonderful new book is an attempt to get to grips with the philosophical and moral issues around the uniquely strange relationship between ourselves and these remarkable animals.

Feline Philosophy draws on centuries of philosophy, from Montaigne to Schopenhauer, to explore the complex and intimate links that have defined how we react to and behave with this most unlikely 'pet'.

At the heart of the book is a sense of gratitude towards cats as perhaps the species that more than any other - in the essential loneliness of our position in the world - gives us a sense of our own animal nature.

©2020 John Gray (P)2020 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Feline Philosophy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Random, directionless mishmash of philosophy and literature, unscientific, contradictory take on cats

Feels like the author googled the topic and found random philosophy and literature by thinkers who loved cats or wrote about them, then makes conjectures about cat biology and behaviour that is simply inaccurate. For example, he lost me when he posited that cats can experience trauma and forget it the next day, and that they are not neurotic in their attachments. I'm not even a cat person and know this to be inaccurate. Not a single citation to science. The context as to why he chose each writer or philosopher, why they are important, and the impact they had is left out, so we learn nothing about cats nor about philosophy. It's just a pretentious, fanciful, forgettable, long winded reminder to chill and practice detachment. It's also a rather cynical and pessimistic take on what makes us human and simplistic, outdated view of the complexity of animals and their neurology and biology. Sometimes it anthromorphasizes cats and other times characterizes them as being lower life forms like a paramecium, with no reference to the complex social worlds of their evolutionary ancestors.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!