Sunday book pick: The cat’s commandments to a good life in ‘Feline Philosophy’

“Cats live by following their nature; humans live by suppressing theirs.”

What can cats teach humans about life? Everything.

Or at least, a lot.

Philosopher and long-time cat devotee John Gray’s 2020 book, Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life, confirms what cat lovers have always known – cats are better than human beings.

In six chapters, Gray argues in favour of the feline philosophy and how humans can benefit from it. The human animal, he argues, is miserable because it has learned nothing from the cat animal. The two might have existed companiably for many thousands years but arrogance – and ignorance – has prevented humans from imbibing their wisdom.

The main problem, as Gary correctly identifies it, is humans’ troubled relationship with death. The human animal is made aware of death early in life, and for the rest of its days, the human tries to evade it, make sense of it, and even conquer it. In contrast, the cat is blissfully unaware of any such fatality, focused on enjoying the present. The past is an obscure memory and the future is a blank. This is not to say that cats do not know what death is but just that it is not the primary anxiety of their lives. The cat understands death, accepts...

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