"First published in Great Britain in 2024 by Granta Books as The Happiness of Dogs: Why the Unexamined Life Is Most Worth Living"--Title page verso

Shadow's rock -- The unexamined life -- Mirror, mirror -- A gambler's freedom -- Good dogs -- A design for life -- Just dogs with the yips -- Sometimes toward Eden -- Further reading

"If you have spent any part of your life with a dog, you may have found certain questions popping, unbidden, into your mind: Is my dog living a fulfilled life? Is my dog a good dog? Does my dog love me? Addressing these questions compels you to confront not just your dog's life but yours as well--to think about what fulfillment, and meaning, in life really is. In The Word of Dog, philosopher Mark Rowlands explores these questions and suggests that in dogs we can see hints--faint, shrouded, but discernible--of what a better way of living might look like. Perhaps none of us can be happy in the way a dog can, but The Word of Dog shows us we could do a lot better than we're doing simply by listening to the unspoken wisdom our dogs reveal to us every day of their happy, uncomplicated lives." --

Includes index