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The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry…
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The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom (original 2015; udgave 2016)

af John Gray (Forfatter)

MedlemmerAnmeldelserPopularitetGennemsnitlig vurderingSamtaler
1998135,414 (3.35)Ingen
In The Soul of the Marionette, his brilliantly enjoyable and freewheeling book, John Gray draws together the religious, philosophic, and fantastical traditions that question the very idea of human freedom.
Medlem:therc
Titel:The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom
Forfattere:John Gray (Forfatter)
Info:Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2016), Edition: Reprint, 192 pages
Samlinger:Dit bibliotek
Vurdering:
Nøgleord:Philosophy & Critical Theory

Work Information

The soul of the marionette: a short enquiry into human freedom af John Gray (2015)

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Although I never knowingly avoided philosophical works it takes an author who writes in interesting way without looking down to the rest of us readers, lacking full knowledge of various philosophical and sociological main and side streams, for me to pick up the book. Basics are required I agree but you can differentiate between a good author from any specialized field and the one writing to a specialized community at any time - good writer tries to intrigue you to pick up the basic works and go through them seeking additional information. And this is where this book shines.

Author tries to present ever changing ideal of freedom by going through the [as expected] comments on ancient world (Greeks, Romans, Middle East, early Christianity) but also through popular books through decades of 19th and 20th century. By doing this author tries to give as wide picture of the evolution of what almost everyone might think to be the greatest of ideas - human freedom - how human freedom was perceived through ages and how we look at it in modern times.

Is it not weird that in time and place where no human being ever lived better, had a chance to have a long and productive life did people chose to relinquish their own personal freedom while chasing dreams and trying to emulate and live lives of people that would not think twice if rest of population got thrown into the sun.

As author explains, and I agree with him, is that people mold everything into pre-existing concepts. Basically nothing actually changes, core ideas and approaches remain the same but technology and influence get better and more .... invasive you might say. Every new principle is based on the ones from before. Some parts of old approach might be thrown away, some modified in smaller or greater way but the essence remains the same. In retrospective we are more than capable of figuring what went wrong but in now we are not capable to figure out what is going on. That is why every progressive approach need to be carefully handled because when compared to the past it might look like a wonderful solution but it is rarely critically checked against contemporary conditions.

We can work on technology progress, new inventions, old/new social approaches to achieve our ideal of freedom but while these are progressing in giant steps forward (and may look excellent in theory and paper) main driving force behind it, one to use it and one to run it, human nature, is about couple of hundred years (if not millennia or two) behind it. We want to say that humans are destined for a greater role in the world (or universe) but we constantly forget that we are result of millions of years of evolution, we carry certain instincts and internal (you might even say subconscious) knowledge and view of the world that needs to be first of all acknowledged and then improved before we can leap forward to make the actual use of the latest and best we built or can create. As long as we portray ourselves as better than we actually are no new idea will come to true fruition (which is greatest issue when it comes to social challenges and evolution).

We aim to create artificial life as a way of getting free of biological limitations - but what are we to do with it? If anything this year proved that entire world can be paralyzed to a complete standstill because of a simple virus. We are not capable of handling simple situation that happened hundreds of times in our recorded history in an organized way without panic and falling into complete disarray.

As centuries go by author states it is obvious that ideas of freedom, what it is and what does it mean, change. We have come to the point where we have surrendered almost all of our privacy to external factors (which would be unimaginable even only few decades before). New generations wont even know what privacy means. Freedom from bad interference in everyday relations is now past time for all of us. Everybody will shush down and let the bully walk over them because of fears for ones future, there is no way of fighting the slander without first being dragged through mud in multiple passes (and what was the point then?). Freedom from biological limitations will bring out other questions (if we create artificial life what would be its role except for us to say - look how smart we are!) and maybe doom humanity (because are we sure that we will remain human?). So far it seems that we shed more freedom than we obtain. Which is a paradox, is it not?

Right now we need to build our own inner refuge to be able to say we are free. Inner self (thoughts and emotions) remains so far safely hidden and only place we can remain truly free. I am more skeptic about this than the author because in my opinion people want to be lead [because (again) of the human nature - and let me note that while being lead majority does not want to think] instead of being self governed. But hope always lives. I think that giant mistake was made somewhere in last century or so when majority relinquished the greatest freedom of all - freedom to think - and instead started to rely on external sources to tell us what is right and wrong. Hopefully we will manage to regain this.

For a humanity as a species to become truly free greater effort is required. We need to acknowledge that we cannot change over night and that we need to first overcome some of our basic instincts in order to be truly free (basically we need to identify that that makes us human in the first place, and lots of people don't want to go that deep because of conflict with existing concepts they built their life on) - we need to accept that we are on living on Earth but we are not special on this very planet from any other form of life. We need to learn first to walk and know ourselves before we try to soar into the sky. Otherwise we will forever be chasing the ideal of freedom while constantly blatantly lying to ourselves that we are actually only an inch from the true freedom [while making whole bunch of potentially catastrophic errors].

Very intriguing book, highly recommended. ( )
  Zare | Jan 23, 2024 |
In a lurching, freewheel manner, this short book strolls through a lot of unconnected literary, historical, and social matters - and - taken by itself - I quite like that sort of thing.

The problem is that Gray tries to use this lurching stroll to attack a series of very well-defended forts, armed as he is with no data or evidence, nor even a robust logic based on anything more than some half-baked literary criticism of Philip K Dick.

I quite liked Gray's other work for its provocative approach, and this book is a short 'provocation' in classic terms - but I prefer my provocations to have some humility in the face of better-prepared arguments, and to work by default from a point of positivity (i.e. to provoke some ways of making the world better, rather than just mowing down some vague straw men).

Rationalism, materialism, modern liberalism, techno futurism - maybe they are all baseless and their proponents idiots, as Gray indicates in one of his many smug asides - but in any case, he's done his side of the argument no favours here. ( )
  sometimeunderwater | Jan 5, 2022 |
A useful addition and original spin on recent ir/rational free will discussion. Writing style makes use of threads of literary obscurity and weaves a pleasantly poignant picture intent on humbling humans. This book along with Sam Harris's Free Will and Patricia Churchland's Touching a Nerve have influenced a clearer understanding of what it means to exist as a human. Influenced to read John Gray's previous work. ( )
  DouglasDuff | Jul 11, 2019 |
Grey gives us a first-rate impression of a man whose mind wanders. Every few pages you want to say, “Wait. What were we talking about?” One minute it’s the Aztecs, then Hobbes then AI. Gray mows over whole squadrons of strawmen but achieves an unexpected coherence in the last pages, where he comes down in favor of a mindset that acknowledges then reconciles with the inscrutability of nature, which ultimately defines the limits of human possibility.

Allagash Black Belgian Stout
Tree House Doppelganger Double IPA
  MusicalGlass | Jun 1, 2019 |
This book hovers slightly above the level of useless crap. ( )
  johnclaydon | Aug 11, 2017 |
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...grace will be most purely present in the human frame that either has no consciousness or an infinite amount of it, which is to say either in a marionette or in a god.

Heinrich von Kleist, 'The puppet theatre'
I mean, after all: you have to consider we're only made out of dust.

Philip K Dick, 'The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
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In The Soul of the Marionette, his brilliantly enjoyable and freewheeling book, John Gray draws together the religious, philosophic, and fantastical traditions that question the very idea of human freedom.

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