Apparently, people with cats are more likely to have degrees than people with dogs. The explanation given is that longer working hours, associated with better qualifications, make cats more attractive as pets than demanding dogs. But as an aside, dogs and cats do have different philosophical associations.

It's surely no coincidence, for example, that the sceptic Montaigne asked whether his cat was playing with him more than he was playing with his cat. Cats are mysterious, they resist human control. The Egyptians worshiped them, maybe because they represent that which eludes us. Derrida too wrote about cats, with the same quizzical inspiration.

Dogs, though, are more associated with certainties and truth. Chrysippus apparently argued that dogs can reason by a 'fifth complex indemonstrable syllogism'. It's been associated with the dog's capacity to sniff things out, follow the trail, scent its prey. The metaphors for truth-seeking are clear. A pun about dogmatism follows.

So cats unsettle, dogs comfort - metaphysically too.

(Image: Albrecht Dürer, St Jerome in His Study - with sleeping dog)