
A radical work of philosophy which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche & Marx the Western tradition has been based on arrogant & erroneous beliefs about human beings & their place in the world. Philosophies such as liberalism & Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits & conquer the Earth. Even in the present day despite Darwins discoveries nearly all schools of thought take as their starting point the belief that humans are radically different from other animals. John Gray argues that this humanist belief in human difference is an illusion & explores how the world & human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned.