What Is Feline Philosophy?
January 20, 2021
Depending on who you talk to, feline philosophy is something humans can benefit from. By studying your cat and their behaviour, you can learn a lot about life.
According to one modern philosopher by the name of John Gray and his new book, “Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life,” cats can be amazing teachers just by being.
He argues that humans need to find meaning or purpose in life and are always seeking happiness or ways to be happy. Whereas cats are just content to be here in the moment.
Gray retired from being a teaching professor at Oxford University and the London School of Economics in 2007. Since then he has published many books, each dealing with the human condition: finding happiness. He has found his answer in his cats and proposes that you can too.
Gray believes that our eternal search for happiness places us in a perpetual state of living in the future. We’re not content to live in the moment unless we’re planning something for a future event that may or may not happen. And when we achieve that goal, we’re striving for the next one, the next best thing.
On the other hand, cats live very much in the present moment. They enjoy every moment, whether it’s getting pets and cuddles or food or new toys, they are just content being cats.
“For them, happiness is not a goal, project, or a far-off condition that they slowly approach. It’s the default condition they find themselves in when they’re not being directly threatened in some way” ~ John Gray [source: JStor Daily].
Gray has owned cats as pets for the past 30 years and just recently lost one of his dearest felines at the age of 23. He believes that looking into a cat’s eyes is like a window into another world. Cats are just content being cats and if we allow ourselves to imagine that state of being, we can find happiness in every moment.
Feline philosophy seems like a pretty good New Year’s 2021 message: Live in the moment and just be.