Are Dogs Our Best Friends?

The philosopher Stanley Cavill argues that we are friends with someone not because of what we do with them but because what we do, we do with them. That is, friendship is based on a shared life. Montaigne when writing about why La Boétie was his best friend said “because he is he and I am I.” This lecture asks whether we can be friends with animals and specifically whether we can be friends - and indeed best friends - with dogs. The lecture will be based on ethnographic, literary, and visual evidence.