The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life

by Mark Rowlands

Overview

“[A]n entertaining and affectionate exploration of dogs and their distinctive mode of being." —Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post

“This is a book everyone interested in animals and philosophy must read." —John Gray, author of The New Leviathans and Feline Philosophy

“Rowlands has written a profound and funny examination of what it means to be fulfilled.” —Tim Dowling, Guardian

“Wise, profound, often very funny I loved every page." —Anthony McGowan, author of How to Teach Philosophy to Your Dog

If you have spent any part of your life with a dog, you may have found certain questions popping, unbidden, into your mind: Is my dog living a fulfilled life? Is my dog a good dog? Does my dog love me? Addressing these questions compels you to confront not just your dog’s life but yours as well—to think about what fulfillment, and meaning, in life really is.

In The Word of Dog, philosopher Mark Rowlands explores these questions and suggests that in dogs we can see hints—faint, shrouded, but discernible—of what a better way of living might look like. Perhaps none of us can be happy in the way a dog can, but The Word of Dog shows us we could do a lot better than we’re doing simply by listening to the unspoken wisdom our dogs reveal to us every day of their happy, uncomplicated lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324095682
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	01/28/2025
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Mark Rowlands is professor and chair of the philosophy department at the University of Miami. He is the author of twenty-three books, including the international bestseller The Philosopher and the Wolf. He lives in Miami, Florida.

Editorial Reviews

"In his bestseller The Philosopher and the Wolf, Mark Rowlands explored his experience of living with a wolf for more than a decade to question narrowly human understandings of the good life. In The Word of Dog, he suggests that the lives of dogs can be more fulfilling and meaningful than human lives. Writing with zest, humor, and passion, Rowlands blends delightful vignettes of his beloved dogs with fresh and radical answers to some of the oldest questions in ethics. This is a book everyone interested in animals and philosophy must read."

John Gray

"Dogs, Mr. Rowlands argues—by way of several deeply moving and lyrically written accounts of his own dogs, especially his German Shepherd, Shadow—have access to a kind of joy and immediacy we humans do not . . . An engagingly written primer to some of the major questions of the discipline, deftly avoiding impenetrable jargon and simplistic reductions."

Wall Street Journal - Tara Isabella Burton

"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…You don’t need to be a dog lover—or even a dog owner—to enjoy this book, but it helps. That way, when you’re standing in the garden at five o’clock in the morning, watching a tiny dog bark at a broom instead of attending to its toilet, you can think: well, at least one of us is happy."

Guardian - Tim Dowling

"A charming confirmation of my heretofore inchoate suspicion that Kafka is infinitely better than I am. . . . Indeed, dogs are often better moral agents than we are. As Rowlands points out, they never make resolutions that they fail to keep; they never ask why they are running after squirrels or realize, to their chagrin, that there is no definitive reason to prefer hunting to herding or Frisbee. They are never paralyzed by indecision, despair or existential malaise. When they see their cherished humans in danger or they perceive a squirrel scurrying by, they act without a moment’s hesitation. . . . [A]n entertaining and affectionate exploration of dogs and their distinctive mode of being."

Becca Rothfeld

"The message from this gentle and compelling book is that in times of moral quandary we could do worse than ask: what would a dog do?"

New Statesman - Michael Prodger

"Rowlands... offers not so much revelations of the inner workings of our faithful companions, but a philosophical message on how we can live a more fulfilling life inspired by the unselfish joy dogs experience—even in repetitive tasks such as chasing a ball."

New York Post - Caroline Howe

"The Word of Dog is one of the most engaging and enjoyable works on philosophy (and, for that matter, dogs) I’ve ever read. Wise, profound, often very funny—I loved every page."

Anthony McGowan

2024-11-09
An inquiry into the moral and philosophical minds of our best friends.

Does the dog have Buddha nature? So runs the Zen koan. Philosophy professor Rowlands takes a slightly different tack, wondering ofCanis lupus familiaris, “If a dog could write a book of philosophy, what would it look like?” It might argue that happiness is a warm bone, might assert that “I bark, therefore I am.” By Rowlands’ reckoning—and he’s not afraid to stretch possibilities into propositions that at first glance might seem absurd—a dog runs free of invidious distinctions, living in a moral universe governed by love, and in all this comes Rowlands’s kicker: “As a general rule, I think, dogs lead more meaningful lives than we do.” To defend the thesis, Rowlands enlists much heavyweight help, although, given Jean-Paul Sartre’s rather dour assessment of the human condition, one wonders if that’s not stacking the deck. Life being tragic, Rowlands supplies a sadly tragic hero with a pet German shepherd that is “deeply paranoid” and “distinctly dangerous” and for that reason is not allowed entry into polite society: His Sisyphean task, as Rowlands notes, is to chase invasive iguanas into the canal that affords him safe room to roam. Is Shadow, the dog, happy? Is his life meaningful? Well, borrowing again from Sartre, Rowlands ponders what the situation might have been if Sisyphus, rolling that rock endlessly uphill, actually took pleasure in the task. Examined life, meaningful life, mirror neurons, and “the groundlessness of our existence and the anguished realization of our groundlessness”: All come into play in his account. Although the book is rewarding in that it sparks a few synapses, before tackling this one, readers will benefit from learning a bit about modern philosophy to be able to decipher dense philosophical prose. Being a dog lover helps, too.

Occasionally tangled, but with plenty of juicy existential problems to gnaw on.

Kirkus Reviews

A philosophical message on how we can live a more fulfilling life inspired by the unselfish joy dogs experience―even in repetitive tasks such as chasing a ball.”

New York Post

The message from this gentle and compelling book is that in times of moral quandary we could do worse than ask: what would a dog do?"

New Statesman

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.”

The Guardian (London)