What is important in life? What gives it purpose, and meaning? While philosophers ponder these questions, dogs just live them. In his new book, Mark Rowlands argues the case that a dog’s capacity for joy, for meaning, for wholesale commitment to being, far exceeds that of humans. A professor of philosophy and a serial dog owner, Rowlands has written a profound and funny examination of what it means to be fulfilled, both for canines and humans. By the end, you will envy your dog’s every waking moment.
It was Socrates who said – or probably said – that the unexamined life is not worth living. But the examined life is not all it’s cracked up to be. We humans are creatures of doubt, agonisers and second-guessers, ceaselessly interrogating ourselves, our actions and our motives. Dogs, not so much.
