\naphorizing, as he does in his own books (such as “Straw Dogs:
\nThoughts on Humans and Other Animals”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> or Al Qaeda and
\nWhat It Means to Be Modern.”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> <\/P>
\n
The key question it asks, Gray says, is “whether the very idea of an ‘inner self’ may not be <\/P> I couldn’t agree more. To shift context, Dear Leader of these United States — he of the I recommend this book review by my favorite aphorist, the British philosopher John Gray, although he is not aphorizing, as he does in his own books (such as “Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals” or Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern.” Gray points to a key question of Peter Watson’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-ig","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/images\/IDEAScover.jpg\")
<\/A>Gray points to a key question of Peter Watson’s new book
\nastonishing overview of human intellectual development,” covering “everything from the
\nemergence of language to the discovery of the unconscious, including the idea of the factory and
\nthe invention of America, the eclipse of the idea of the soul in 19th-century materialism and the
\ncontinuing elusiveness of the self.” <\/P>
\n
\nmisconceived,” and answers:<\/P>
\n
\nLooking “in”, we have found nothing — nothing stable anyway, nothing
\nenduring, nothing we can all agree upon, nothing conclusive — because there is nothing to
\nfind.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n
\n
\nemptiness<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A> — is the most obvious example, a perfect illustration of
\n“nothing enduring,” the nothing inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"