The Book of Dead Philosophers

by SimonCritchley (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.30

  The question of what constitutes a 'good death' has been the central preoccupation of philosophers since ancient times. Many of the 190 philosopher's deaths included here are bizarre, and tales of madness, murder, pathos (and bathos) abound. Heracleitus suffocated in cow dung; Empedocles leapt into a volcano; Jeremy Bentham had himself stuffed and sits on public view in University College London - The Book of Dead Philosophers will inspire both amusement and reflection. Looking at what great thinkers have said about death turns out to be a life-affirming enquiry into the meaning and possibility of human happiness. In learning how to die, we learn how to live.