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How to Talk to a Cat: Buber, Philosophy, and Dialogue with Unspeaking Things

by Dustin N. Atlas
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹8,865.00
Original price ₹10,638.00
Original price ₹10,638.00
Original price ₹10,638.00
(-17%)
₹8,865.00
Current price ₹8,865.00

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Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9780253075765
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Indiana University Press
  • Publisher Imprint: Indiana University Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 172
  • Original Price: GBP 62.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 404 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Movements / Existentialism

Guided by the philosophical insights of Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, How to Talk to a Cat explores the possibility of dialogue beyond the boundaries of spoken language. Original and effective in its interdisciplinary scope, this book ventures into the complexities of engaging in meaningful dialogue with creatures that do not use verbal communication, focusing on unspeaking beings we encounter in the domestic sphere: cats, babies, plants, and tools, among others.

Author Dustin N. Atlas distinguishes between talking to entities in a direct, second-person dialogue, talking about them in a third-person analytical mode, and focusing on how the former is possible in the absence of speech. While many discussions of Buber's philosophy have focused on the I-You relationship, How to Talk to a Cat emphasizes the dynamic processes of dialogue that take place over time where attention, rather than presence, is central. Raising questions about the nature of understanding, cohabitation, and the possibility of connection across different beings, Atlas encourages readers to look more closely at their present life, to reconsider the scope of dialogue and extend it beyond the human to include the silent relationships we share with the world around us.

Bringing Jewish thought into conversation with contemporary philosophy, ethology, animal studies, and critical theory, How to Talk to a Cat challenges prevailing assumptions about the limitations of dialogue and expands on the nature of understanding, cohabitation, and the possibility of connection across types of beings.

Dustin N. Atlas is Director of Jewish Studies and Associate Professor in the School of Religion at Queen's University. He specializes in contemporary Jewish thought and aesthetics, especially works that concern imperfection, gossip, and nonhuman creatures.

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