The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths
E314217
The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths is a philosophical work by John Gray that critiques the modern belief in human progress and explores the limits of reason, civilization, and human self-understanding.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2968610 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths Context triple: [John Gray, notableWork, The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths]
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A.
Illusions of Progress
Illusions of Progress is a political and social critique by Georges Sorel that challenges optimistic beliefs in linear social advancement and rational reform.
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B.
The Malaise of Modernity
The Malaise of Modernity is a philosophical work by Charles Taylor that examines how individualism, instrumental reason, and the loss of shared moral horizons shape the problems and anxieties of contemporary Western society.
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C.
Monocultures of the Mind
Monocultures of the Mind is a book by environmental activist Vandana Shiva that critiques industrial agriculture and globalization for eroding biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and cultural diversity.
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D.
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Crooked Timber of Humanity is a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin exploring pluralism, the limits of human perfectibility, and the complexities of political and moral life.
-
E.
The Nature of Necessity
The Nature of Necessity is a highly influential work of analytic philosophy in which Alvin Plantinga develops a rigorous account of modal logic, possible worlds, and the metaphysics of necessity and possibility.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths Target entity description: The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths is a philosophical work by John Gray that critiques the modern belief in human progress and explores the limits of reason, civilization, and human self-understanding.
-
A.
Illusions of Progress
Illusions of Progress is a political and social critique by Georges Sorel that challenges optimistic beliefs in linear social advancement and rational reform.
-
B.
The Malaise of Modernity
The Malaise of Modernity is a philosophical work by Charles Taylor that examines how individualism, instrumental reason, and the loss of shared moral horizons shape the problems and anxieties of contemporary Western society.
-
C.
Monocultures of the Mind
Monocultures of the Mind is a book by environmental activist Vandana Shiva that critiques industrial agriculture and globalization for eroding biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and cultural diversity.
-
D.
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Crooked Timber of Humanity is a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin exploring pluralism, the limits of human perfectibility, and the complexities of political and moral life.
-
E.
The Nature of Necessity
The Nature of Necessity is a highly influential work of analytic philosophy in which Alvin Plantinga develops a rigorous account of modal logic, possible worlds, and the metaphysics of necessity and possibility.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ philosophical work ⓘ |
| argues |
civilization does not eliminate human savagery
ⓘ
history has no inherent moral direction ⓘ humans are not fundamentally different from other animals in their capacity for illusion ⓘ myths of progress replace religious eschatologies in modern societies ⓘ |
| author | John Gray ⓘ |
| authorNationality | British ⓘ |
| comparesHumansTo | animals ⓘ |
| continuationOf | themes from Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticizes |
Enlightenment rationalism
ⓘ
belief in inevitable moral progress ⓘ liberal humanism ⓘ secular faith in history ⓘ |
| genre |
intellectual history
ⓘ
philosophy ⓘ political philosophy ⓘ |
| hasPart | essays ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Arthur Schopenhauer
ⓘ
J. G. Ballard ⓘ James Lovelock ⓘ Joseph Conrad ⓘ Sigmund Freud ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
civilization
ⓘ
critique of the idea of progress ⓘ human nature ⓘ limits of reason ⓘ modernity ⓘ myth of human self-mastery ⓘ pessimism about history ⓘ relationship between humans and animals ⓘ secular humanism ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| notableFor |
critique of secular faith in progress
ⓘ
use of literary and historical examples ⓘ |
| philosophicalPosition |
anti-progressivism
ⓘ
secular pessimism ⓘ skepticism about human rationality ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2013 ⓘ |
| publisher |
Allen Lane
ⓘ
Farrar, Straus and Giroux ⓘ |
| relatedWork | Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals ⓘ |
| structure | three-part work ⓘ |
| targetAudience | readers of philosophy and political theory ⓘ |
| timePeriodDiscussed |
20th century
ⓘ
21st century ⓘ modern era ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths Description of subject: The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths is a philosophical work by John Gray that critiques the modern belief in human progress and explores the limits of reason, civilization, and human self-understanding.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.