The Soul Of The Marionette: A Short Enquiry Into Human Freedom

Author: John Gray

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General Fields

  • : 45.00 NZD
  • : 9781846144493
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • :
  • : 0.324
  • : February 2015
  • : 223mm X 142mm X 21mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 45.0
  • : April 2015
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : John Gray
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  • : Hardback
  • : 1
  • :
  • : English
  • : 123.5
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  • :
  • : 192
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Barcode 9781846144493
9781846144493

Description

In The Soul of the Marionette, John Gray draws together the religious, philosophic and fantastical traditions that question the very idea of human freedom. We flatter ourselves about the nature of free will and yet the most enormous forces - biological, physical, metaphysical - constrain our every action. Many writers and intellectuals have always understood this, but instead of embracing our condition we battle against it, with everyone from world conquerors to modern scientists dreaming of a 'human dominion' almost comically at odds with our true state. This is a stimulating and enraging meditation on everything from cybernetics to the fairground marionettes of the title.

Author description

John Gray is the author of a number of highly regarded and controversial books, including False Dawn, Straw Dogs and, most recently, The Silence of Animals. He has taught at Oxford, Harvard, Yale and the LSE. John Banville described The Silence of Animals as 'a marvellous statement of what it is to be both an animal and a human in the strange, terrifying and exquisite world in which we straw dogs find ourselves'.