Gray sees volition,and hence morality,as an illusion,and portrays humanity as a ravenous species engaged in wiping out other forms of life. Gray has written that "humans ... cannot destroy the Earth,but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them."[4]
Among philosophers,he is known for his exploration of the uneasy relationship between value pluralism and liberalism in the work of Isaiah Berlin.[6]
Gray's political thought is noted for its mobility across the political spectrum over the years. As a student,Gray was on the left and continued to vote Labour into the mid-1970s. By 1976 he had shifted towards a right-liberal New Right position,on the basis that the world was changing irrevocably through technological inventions,realigned financial markets and new economic power blocs and that the left failed to comprehend the magnitude and nature of this change.[7] In the 1990s Gray became an advocate for environmentalism and New Labour. Gray considers the conventional (left-wing/right-wing) political spectrum of conservatism and social democracy as no longer viable.[8]
On liberalism,Gray identified the common strands in liberal thought as being individualist,egalitarian,meliorist,and universalist. The individualist element avers the ethical primacy of the human being against the pressures of social collectivism,the egalitarian element assigns the same moral worth and status to all individuals,the meliorist element asserts that successive generations can improve their sociopolitical arrangements,and the universalist element affirms the moral unity of the human species and marginalises local cultural differences.[9]
Central to the doctrine of humanism,in Gray's view,is the inherently utopian belief in meliorism;that is,that humans are not limited by their biological natures and that advances in ethics and politics are cumulative and that they can alter or improve the human condition,in the same way that advances in science and technology have altered or improved living standards.[10]
Gray contends,in opposition to this view,that history is not progressive,but cyclical. Human nature,he argues,is an inherent obstacle to cumulative ethical or political progress.[10] Seeming improvements,if there are any,can very easily be reversed:one example he has cited has been the use of torture by the United States against terrorist suspects.[11] "What's interesting",Gray said in an interview in 032c magazine,"is that torture not only came back,but was embraced by liberals,and defended by liberals. Now there are a lot of people,both liberal and conservative,who say,'Well,it's a very complicated issue.' But it wasn't complicated until recently. They didn't say that five or ten years ago."[12]
Furthermore,he argues that this belief in progress,commonly imagined to be secular and liberal,is in fact derived from an erroneous Christian notion of humans as morally autonomous beings categorically different from other animals. This belief,and the corresponding idea that history makes sense,or is progressing towards something,is in Gray's view merely a Christian prejudice.[10]
In Straw Dogs he argues that the idea that humans are self-determining agents does not pass the acid test of experience. Those Darwinist thinkers who believe humans can take charge of their own destiny to prevent environmental degradation are,in this view,not naturalists,but apostles of humanism.[10]
He identifies the Enlightenment as the point at which the Christian doctrine of salvation was taken over by secular idealism and became a political religion with universal emancipation as its aim.[10]Communism,fascism and "global democratic capitalism" are characterised by Gray as Enlightenment "projects" which have led to needless suffering,in Gray's view,as a result of their ideological allegiance to this religion.[13]
Agonistic liberalism
The term agonistic liberalism appears in Gray's 1995 book Isaiah Berlin. Gray uses this phrase to describe what he believes is Berlin's theory of politics,namely his support for both value pluralism and liberalism.
More generally,agonistic liberalism could be used to describe any kind of liberalism that claims its own value commitments do not form a complete vision of politics and society,and that one instead needs to look for what Berlin calls an "uneasy equilibrium" between competing values. In Gray's view,many contemporary liberal theorists would fall into this category,for instance John Rawls and Karl Popper.[citation needed]
Friedrich Hayek described Gray's 1984 book Hayek on Liberty as "The first survey of my work which not only fully understands but is able to carry on my ideas beyond the point at which I left off."[21]
His 1998 book False Dawn was praised by George Soros as "a powerful analysis of the deepening instability of global capitalism" which "should be read by all who are concerned about the future of the global economy".[19] John Banville praised Black Mass,saying that "Gray's assault on Enlightenment ideas of progress is timelier than ever".[22]
His 2002 book Straw Dogs:Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals has received particular praise. Ballard wrote that the book "challenges most of our assumptions about what it means to be human,and convincingly shows that most of them are delusions" and described it "a powerful and brilliant book","an essential guide to the new millennium" and "the most exhilarating book I have read since Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene."[23] Self called the book "a contemporary work of philosophy devoid of jargon,wholly accessible,and profoundly relevant to the rapidly evolving world we live in" and wrote "I read it once,I read it twice and took notes. I arranged to meet its author so I could publicise the book –I thought it that good."[14][23]
Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written that Gray is the modern thinker for whom he has the most respect,calling him "prophetic".[24]
Criticism
Gray's Straw Dogs has been criticised by Terry Eagleton,who has written:"mixing nihilism and New Ageism in equal measure,Gray scoffs at the notion of progress for 150 pages before conceding that there is something to be said for anaesthetics. The enemy in his sights is not so much a straw dog as a straw man:the kind of starry-eyed rationalist who passed away with John Stuart Mill,but who he has to pretend still rules the world".[25]
The academic and author Danny Postel of the University of Denver also took issue with Straw Dogs. Postel stated that Gray's claim that environmental destruction was the result of humanity's flawed nature would be "welcome news to the captains of industry and the architects of the global economy;the ecological devastation they leave in their wake,according to Gray,has nothing to do with their exploits."[26] Postel also claimed that too much of Straw Dogs rested on "blanket assertion",and criticised Gray's use of the term "plague of people" as an outdated "neo-Malthusian persiflage about overpopulation".[26] Postel strongly condemned Gray for outlining "complete political passivity. There is no point whatsoever in our attempting to make the world a less cruel or more livable place."[26]
In his 2004 book,How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World,the British journalist,writer and broadcaster Francis Wheen wrote:
"Conservatives, Marxists, post-modernists and pre-modernists have queued up to take a kick at the bruised ideas of the eighteenth century. The most vicious of these boot-boys is John Gray, professor of European thought at the London School of Economics, who has published dozens of increasingly apocalyptic books and articles on the need to end the Enlightenment project forthwith. Whereas MacIntyre seeks sanctuary in twelfth-century monasteries, for Gray our only hope of salvation is to embrace Eastern mysticism ... Taoism seems to be his favoured creed but it is hard to interpret Gray's prescriptions with any certainty, partly because of his scattergun style but mostly because he changes his mind so often. A line on the dust-jacket of Enlightenment's Wake (1995), which says that the book 'stakes out the elements of John Gray's new position' could just as well be appended to everything he writes."[27]
BBC Radio
Gray has made several broadcasts for BBC Radio 4's programme A Point of View.
In August and September 2011 he made six broadcasts:
Greece and the Meaning of Folly:[28] Taking the myth of the Trojan Horse as his starting point, he explores what he sees as the modern-day folly unfolding in Europe.
Kim Philby:[29] Why Kim Philby and so many others failed to predict the future.
The Revolution of Capitalism:[30] Why an increasing number of people believe that Karl Marx was right.
Cats, Birds and Humans:[31] Why the human animal needs contact with something other than itself.
Believing in Belief:[32] Argues that the scientific and rationalist attack on religion is misguided.
Churchill, Chance and the Black Dog:[33] The chance encounters that made Winston Churchill Britain's wartime prime minister.
He presented a second sequence from November 2014, sharing his views on:[34]
↑Berman, Morris (10 August 2023). "DARK AGES AMERICA: Our Common Humanity". " Not sure I'm in his (Gray's) league, but thanks for the compliment. I have admired his work for a long time. Very sober analyst."
Tony Burns (1999). "John Gray and the Death of Conservatism". Contemporary Politics. 5 (1): 7–24. doi:10.1080/13569779908449987.
George Crowder (2006). "Gray and the Politics of Pluralism". Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 9 (2: The Political Theory of John Gray): 171–188. doi:10.1080/13698230600655008. S2CID144224371.
Horton, John and Glen Newey, eds. (2007). The Political Theory of John Gray. London: Routledge. ISBN0-415-36647-X.
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