How do animals perceive the world? What does it really feel like to be a cat, or a dog? In Understanding Animals, Lars Svendsen investigates how humans can attempt to understand the lives of other animals. The book delves into animal communication, intelligence, self-awareness, loneliness and grief, but most fundamentally how humans and animals can cohabit and build a form of friendship. Svendsen provides examples from many different animal species, from chimpanzees to octopus, but his main focus is on cats and dogs – the animals that many of us are close to in our daily lives.

Using both philosophical analysis and the latest scientific discoveries, Svendsen argues that an owner’s relationship with their pet is as equally valid and insightful as the scientific study of human-animal relations. With this entertaining and thought-provoking book, animal-lovers and pet owners will gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to be an animal, and in turn, a human.

Lars Svendsen is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway. He is the author of many books including A Philosophy of Boredom (2004), Fashion: A Philosophy (2006), A Philosophy of Fear (2008), A Philosophy of Freedom (2014) and A Philosophy of Loneliness (2017), all published by Reaktion Books.