From Poison to Cow Dung: A History of Philosophers' Deaths

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/10/09/Simon_Critchley_To_Philosophize_is_to_Learn_How_to_Die

From suicide by a love potion to suffocating in cow dung, Simon Critchley gives a brief history of the deaths of famous philosophers -- stories he describes as "weirdness, madness, suicide, murder, bad luck, pathos and some very dark humor."

-----

English philosopher Simon Critchley, chair and professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research, discusses his 2009 New York Times bestseller, The Book of Dead Philosophers.

Starting with Cicero's axiom, "To philosophize is to learn how to die," Professor Critchley leads us to his conclusion that to die is to learn how to live. The Daily Telegraph called the book "rigorous, profound, and frequently hilarious" and described Critchley as "an engaging and deadpan guide to the metaphysical necropolis" as well as "bracingly serious and properly comic." - The New School

Simon Critchley was born in Hertfordshire in 1960, and currently lives and works in New York as Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He failed dramatically at school before failing in a large number of punk bands in the late 70s and failing as a poet some time later.

This was followed by failure as a radical political activist. By complete accident, he ended up at university when he was 22 and decided to stay. He found a vocation in teaching philosophy, although his passions still lie in music, poetry and politics. The Book of Dead Philosophers is his eighth book.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• philosopher
• philosophy
• history
• logic
• reason
• socrates
• suicide
• death
• dead
• historic
• life
• living
• existence
• plato
• aristotle
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv
• simon
• critchley
• new
• school

[ThinkWithYourMind223]

"Always beware mobs of Christians. Especially if they have oyster shells."

Good advice. lol!

[1RadicalOne]

How plausible are most of these, seriously?

[108ravinjay]

Who died out of cow dung?

[Roperious]

This is total BS. Besides, he could be making this stuff up and how can we prove him wrong? I'm pretty sure that's the fallacy of non-falsifiability.

[Hopeless03]

That's hilarious. Aquinas died epically!

[WarThemedRevolution]

@variablast They were not really big on hanging people at that time, so it is much more likely that he was indeed nailed to a cross. That is what the Romans, Gnostics, and Ebionites all claimed. The Pharisees disagree but still say he was executed...just in a way that doesn't make them look as monstrous.

[WarThemedRevolution]

@variablast We can be pretty certain that Jesus was crucified. Ignoring the 27 texts later amalgamated into the New Testament of the bible, we have Gnostic texts agreeing he was crucified. The texts of the Pharisees suggest that they sent him to be executed after a fair trial, and by hanging. But Roman law at that time said that non-citizens (especially Jews like Christ,) should be crucified when executed. Citizens were to be decapitated.

[imokicur2]

Try spelling them!

[Druwg]

@VivekRajcoomar great argument there.

[VivekRajcoomar]

no it is not.