He isn't right about human nature, correct? I mean it has

>>9823007
Since he apparently BFTO'd Rawls I'd consider him an interesting fellow.

>>9823051
Source? I've read several books written by Gray but either can't remember it or it isn't in one of the books I've read.
Didn't like the human extinction commite though, but it was somewhat mindchanging anyway.

>>9823241
He just seems to be generally against liberalism, as well as Rawl's particular formulation of the concept. He has written a number of books on the subject. Hopefully someone more familiar with his works shows up because I am really interested in studying his philosophy.

>>9823266
I should really reread him. What I can tell you is that he argues that ideas of progression are religious in nature and that they come from Christianity. He also argues that ideology will not prevent war and environmental destruction, and is against such idealistic projects, though in "Gray's Anatomy" he argues for green conservativism.

In general he thinks that humans cannot be improved, and think such projects are futile. It is possible I'm remembering this wrong, but I thinks he discusses what it means know that we know humans are animals.

His latest book was about free will, which was also the last book I've read on him. It has been some time since I've read him, and I don't have any books in my possesion, so yeah my familiarity with him is lacking. And I've synthesized his ideas with latest research in psychology, neuroscience and political science, so it all has become rather fuzzy.

>>9823266
Here are some John Gray quotes to get a feel of his ideas:
>“Today, for the mass of humanity, science and technology embody 'miracle, mystery, and authority'. Science promises that the most ancient human fantasies will at last be realized. Sickness and ageing will be abolished; scarcity and poverty will be no more; the species will become immortal. Like Christianity in the past, the modern cult of science lives on the hope of miracles. But to think that science can transform the human lot is to believe in magic. Time retorts to the illusions of humanism with the reality: frail, deranged, undelivered humanity. Even as it enables poverty to be diminished and sickness to be alleviated, science will be used to refine tyranny and perfect the art of war.”
>“Alone among the animals, humans seek meaning in their lives by killing and dying for the sake of nonsensical dreams.”
>“Humanism is not science, but religion - the post-Christian faith that humans can make a world better than any in which they have so far lived. In pre-Christian Europe is was taken for granted that the future would be like the past. Knowledge and invention might advance, but ethics would remain much the same. History was a series of cycles, with no overall meaning. Against this pagan view, Christians understood history as a story of sin and redemption. Humanism is the transformation of this Christian doctrine of salvation into a project of universal human emancipation. The idea of progress is a secular version of the Christian belief in providence. That is why among the ancient pagans it was unknown.”

(Cont)
I remember now that he also thinks that knowledge does not bring any kind of enlightenment, and a few findings in cognitive science support this

>>9823339
>Even as it enables poverty to be diminished and sickness to be alleviated, science will be used to refine tyranny and perfect the art of war.

I like that.

>>9823996
So why do you like it?
Because it is realistic? Because you agree with him? Or because you like the outcome?

>>9823007
This man is a kafir, his philosophy is rooted in materialism and atheism.

Good thing atheists like him will fail to reproduce and will die out, alluhu ackbar.

>Be athiest

>Highest suicide rate

>Lowest reproduction rate

>Highest depression rate

>Highest alcohol and drug abuse rate

>Actually thinks this is a good thing

TAKBIR

>>9824010
I like it because it strikes me as a true insight -- and a particular insight that I've never had before, although all the data was there to potentially spark the insight.

>Humanism is not science, but religion - the post-Christian faith that humans can make a world better than any in which they have so far lived.

I also like this whole paragraph, in this case because my pre-existing belief is more or less along these lines, but I like the way Gray puts it - in compact, lucid language.

>>9824019
I don't know if you are sincere or a troll. But I think you are mistaking into thinking that atheism and materialism are the causes of high suicide rates, low reproduction rates, high depression rates and high alcohol and drug abuse.

I think the majority are problems of the system we live in, which has to do with the structure of it, not so much its values. We do have a culture which tolerates drugs and alcohol, and I think that is where we are wrong when it comes to values. Same with food, traditional diets were much healthier, now we have all kinds of diseases which could easily be prevented.

You cherry pick too, we have low rates of violence and crime in our societies for example.

>>9824092
Peace and blessing brother, atheists do have all of the traits I listed. In the U.S. for instance the state with the most atheists (Alaska) also has the highest alcoholism rate and suicide rate. And we find suicide rampant in none monotheistic societies like China and Japan.

There are thousands of studies that confirm this, here is one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3547523/

>>9824857
thanks

>“There is no power in the world that can ensure that technology is used only for benign purposes. Partly this is because we cannot agree on what such purposes are. Partly it is because even when enough people are agreed there is no power that can enforce the consensus. The institution on which we would have to rely for such enforcement – the modern state – is not up to the job.”

>>9823007
If you like Gray you'd probably like Foucault

>>9824135
Have you considered that despondency, drug use, abd suicide drive people away from spiritual meaning and thus cause atheism rather than being a product of it?

>>9824135
>Peace and blessing brother, atheists do have all of the traits I listed. In the U.S. for instance the state with the most atheists (Alaska) also has the highest alcoholism rate and suicide rate

Oh wow, this is the worst case of false correlation I've ever seen. Surely the high suicide and alcoholism rates have nothing to do with the fact that it's freezing, almost nobody lives there, the jobs suck, and that there's no sunlight?

>>9824135
>(Alaska) also has the highest alcoholism rate and suicide rate

That's also because It has the largest native population, who are very prone to substance abuse.

They're also very religious people btw.

>>9826875
Not OP but I will try coupling their works sometime.