This morning I finished reading Mark Rowland’s book ‘The Philosopher and the Wolf’:
I came to this title having last year read his book ‘Running with the Pack’ which blended his experiences running, and especially running with his wolf and dogs, and his work as a philosopher/academic. In that book, a section describing the states of mind that can occur when running long distances in terms of various classic philosophical ideas particularly struck me and it was largely because of that section that I identified TPatW as a future title to read.
I am really not a dog person. In fact I am not much of an animals person. I am certainly not be the sort of person who might think that it would be good, fun, sensible, practical or reasonable to have a wolf around the house. But I certainly AM interested in philosophy, at least I increasingly find myself thinking that it is a subject that I really would like to pursue in more depth. Consequently, I came to TPatW in search of more of Rowlands’s wonderful exposition of philosophical ideas and not out of an interest in the wolf!
Anyway, once again I really enjoyed Rowlands’s writing – the mix of cautious autobiography, education and philosophical musing – and am more convinced than ever that I need to try to find some kind of structured introduction to philosophy to work through. Rowlands uses his observations of the wolf (Brenin) and the intertwining of their lives and actions to draw out some profound messages about what it is to be a human (and a wolf) and ends up arguing that the meaning of life is not to be found in possession or in purpose but in the ‘higher moments’ (moments where we dig in and carry on regardless of the adversity that we face [my definition]) that lie scattered along the timeline of life. Rowlands describes these moments as ones where we shout “F**k You” to the Gods and it is clear that by choosing to melt part of his existence with the life of Brenin, he was doing just that.
Tim O'Hare 