Iris Murdoch once said “Philosophy! Empty thinking by...

Iris Murdoch once said â€Å"Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!† During the story of Gulliver’s travels, Gulliver seems to show a conceited angle against the Houyhnhnms. He observes these creatures as beasts with a bias of that his race is more superior to both the Houyhnhnms and the yahoos. With this said, Swift has Gulliver construct a â€Å"method of planting colonies† that turns the reader’s views of the Houyhnhnms to be seen as a race of beasts that need to be educated and civilized. Swift can be seen to support anti-colonialism though the arrogance and condescending attitude of Gulliver towards both the Houyhnhnms and the yahoos showing that through his â€Å"European eyes† Gulliver first†¦show more content†¦Upset that he cannot stay with the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver builds a canoe and is later found by a Portuguese ship which brings him home to England. Gulliver is now repelled by these â€Å"yahoos† including that of his own family. Once home Gulliver buys two horses and spends most of his time conversing with them rather than spending time with his own family. Swift first creates a rift between the complexities of the reader, having the yahoos as the lowest common denominator in human nature. At the other end of the spectrum the Houyhnhnms can be seen as virtue beings without the conflicts and emotional obstacles that plague men. It is told that these Houyhnhnms show no kinship, saying they would not value the life of one Houyhnhnm over that of their own children. This is in complete contrast to the yahoos who are described as the very vicious instinct of man, being referred to descriptively in a number of ways as dung. Gulliver can then be determined as the middle of this spectrum. During his examination of the Houyhnhnms Gulliver wrongfully directs morality upon them, where the Houyhnhnms represent the enlightenment of man and Gulliver that of the colonial expansion. The importance of the horse resemblance is that horses are not conflicted with such things as pride, predujuce, power, and greed. The fact the Gulliver tries to convert thes e creatures as his own countrymen mocks at the fact that even though this race is pure and unbias, Gulliver’s support in colonialism amplifies