Just Finished Reading: The Philosopher and the Wolf – Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death and Happiness by Mark Rowlands

I picked this up for two main reasons: It had an amazing picture of a beautiful wolf on the cover and the fact that I’d read some interesting general philosophy texts by him before. This semi-autobiographical tome revolved around how the author’s life changed after he made the rather crazy decision to buy a wolf cub as a pet. For the next 11 years his life was dominated by the wolfs needs rather than his own – not only because wolves are high maintenance creatures in general but also because they are incredibly destructive if left along for too long – like anything more than 5 minutes.

It’s actually difficult to describe exactly what this book was about. Largely it’s about the author’s relationship with and deep respect for the wolf Brenin. But between the autobiographical storytelling there are real philosophical nuggets. Rowlands has a deep mistrust of humanity based as much on personal experience as on an understanding of our evolutionary past. Not surprisingly he turned out to be both a loner and somewhat of a misanthrope. Personally I wouldn’t go that far but I could certainly see his point. He contrasts his antagonism towards humans with his admiration for the wolf – both in its undying loyalty to the ‘pack’ and its ability to live in the now, unlike humanity who seem both trapped by the past and mesmerised by the future. Rather gratifyingly he ended this short, if rather intense, volume by bringing up some interesting speculations on the ‘meaning of life’ question that gelled with my own thoughts expressed in my recent dissertation. It was nice to be backed up by a professional philosopher and I would’ve totally quoted him if I’d read this book first! If you have a vague interest in philosophy or more than a passing interest in wolves this could be the book for you. An interesting if, at times, strange read.