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The Book Of Dead Philosophers

Simon Critchley

3.60 · Rating details · 944 ratings · 122 reviews

From the self-mocking haikus of Zen masters on their deathbeds to the last words of Christian saints and modern-day sages, this text looks at what the world's greatest minds have made of death.

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Hardcover, 298 pages

Published June 2nd 2008 by Granta Books (Uk) (first published 2008)

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Jan 09, 2015 Jonfaith rated it liked it

Shelves: theory

Strange as it might sound, my constant concern in these seemingly morbid pages is the meaning and possibility of happiness.

This book harbored such high expectations for me, ones that sadly weren't met. Critchely dazzled me with his book on Political Theology and i turned to this appropriately whetted. The approach here lacked rigor and offered instead a popular history of philosophy through 190 vignettes of central figures. A brief segue into ancient Chinese philosophy and the inclusion of a ...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Greg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy-theory-and-other-their-i, biography

At work a semi-common (meaning I get the question a few times a year) question that gets sent my way is something like, "I want an introduction to philosophy". I don't like this question very much. Most people who are asking it have no background in philosophy and they are looking for one quick book that will teach them everything they need to know. Sometimes they want this one book to have original writings by philosophers, but just the essential stuff, along with easy to understand little At work a semi-common (meaning I get the question a few times a year) question that gets sent my way is something like, "I want an introduction to philosophy". I don't like this question very much. Most people who are asking it have no background in philosophy and they are looking for one quick book that will teach them everything they need to know. Sometimes they want this one book to have original writings by philosophers, but just the essential stuff, along with easy to understand little commentaries to explain it all to them. Most of the people who have asked me this question (or more likely have been sent to me to answer this question, since this is my supposed area of expertise) I'm sure are well meaning people who are looking to learn something about philosophy but have no idea where to start (or in the case of one particular man who wanted a book that would just tell him the meaning of life, but in a small compact book).

I don't like this question because there isn't a good answer to it. Most people don't care for my standard answer, which is to read Sophie's World, a YA novel about the history of philosophy. I personally think this is a great introduction to philosophy, and I wish I had read it a few years before I did when I had first started my erratic reading of various philosophers. My second and third recommendations are Copleston's seven or eight volume history of western philosophy collection, which I'm sure is quite good, even if I have only read parts of two of the volumes, and the encyclopedia of philosophy edited by Robert Audi, an invaluable collection of short essays on just about any topic one can think of in philosophy. This book many times in my student days helped me out by giving me enough of a background in something being mentioned in a book to have at least some idea of what the writer was saying.

Why all of this blah blah blah? Because I think I might be adding this book to my weak and disappointing arsenal of books to give to people who want a bit of an overview of philosophy. Maybe they won't learn too much from this book about actual philosophy (there is sort of an understanding in the book that the reader kind of knows something already, but not an alienating understanding), but they will be given fun anecdotal stories about a whole slew of philosophers, and at least get their palates whetted for where they might want to start their own reading. It will also expose them to the reality that there are no answers in philosophy, just a whole bunch of questions that in all likely hood one would be a healthier person not to think about.

The book itself is a lot of fun to read, it's kind of like an In Touch magazine special issue on the intellectual celebrities from the past twenty six hundred years (or so). You get lots of juicy little details about philosophers, you get lots of deaths, some of them mundane, some of them spectacular and even some improbable. You get to learn details of philosophers lives that you would never imagine. For example, did you know that Spinoza liked to train spiders to fight each other, and apparently one of his favorite pastimes was watching them fight. Or that Nietzsche was coprophagic? Do you even know what coprophagic is? Well I didn't, and neither does my spell checker. It means that he drank his own urine and ate his own shit. Wow!!!! Who would have thought. I also didn't know that Wagner had written to Nietzsche's doctors with his own opinion about the philosopher's breakdown, apparently Wagner was the opinion that Nietzsche suffered from his nervous breakdown because of excessive masturbation (which leads me to wonder who Wagner would know this, did they talk about beating off? Can you picture in your mind the giant of German opera discussing how he jerks off with the melancholy philosopher? Or maybe did Wagner walk in on Nietzsche doing it? So many questions, volume 2 please, I propose the title to be The Book of Auto-Erotic Philosophers).

My complaint about the book is that there is no entry for Cioran, maybe not a major philosopher (but seriously there are quite a few non Rock Stars here), but really a central one when you want to talk about death and at least writing that is aimed directly at not wanting to live anymore in the world (yes I could have said suicide). I would have liked to seen him represented, but I guess one can't have everything they would like. ...more

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Jul 01, 2009 Greg Brown rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This was hugely disappointing, and probably because it's not that good.

The premise of the book is actually pretty interesting: illustrate the various philosophies to death by recounting the personal deaths (and lives) of famous philosophers throughout history and how that compared or contrasted with their philosophy. However, there are a few mistakes that Critchley makes in telling the tales:

- Trying to tell the stories of over 190 different philosophers... in a 250 page book.
- Unable to decide This was hugely disappointing, and probably because it's not that good.

The premise of the book is actually pretty interesting: illustrate the various philosophies to death by recounting the personal deaths (and lives) of famous philosophers throughout history and how that compared or contrasted with their philosophy. However, there are a few mistakes that Critchley makes in telling the tales:

- Trying to tell the stories of over 190 different philosophers... in a 250 page book.
- Unable to decide whether the capsule biograpies are meant to be read in sequence or at will.
- Immediately - and with little supporting evidence - imposing his own viewpoint in the picture and allowing it to warp his histories without any apparent consideration of alternative stances beyond mere recounting.

As a result, Critchley rarely manages to eke any depth out of the philosophers discussed. This isn't too much of a problem early on in the greek philosophers, whose differences can be bluntly hashed out without too much loss in detail. But once he gets to medieval times, the enterprise starts to fall apart. (More later.)

Critchley's prose is merely middling, despite being specifically praised by Lewis Lapham (who normally has excellent taste as showcased in Lapham's Quarterly). His tone is so bland that it seems equally ill-suited to discussing philosophy or humorous anecdotes, despite being employed in the service of both. Sometimes there enough transitions between sections to indicate they were meant to be read as a whole, but other times they seem almost slapdash. Even when we're being given the These Are Connected signposts, there doesn't seem to be much added by their juxtaposition.

Finally, the whole book is semi-stifled by Critchley himself, who declares his position from the beginning and never ceases to remind you whether he agrees or disagrees with the author at hand. This is ok when it comes to constructing philosophy, but not when you're laying claim to exegenesis (deciphering the meaning of texts) or recounting their lives in a historically-accurate manner. But yet it does, and the result is that I was deeply suspicious of everything Critchley said. And because he slammed all 190 people into only 250 pages, there's very little given in the way of corroborating evidence. Yuck.

I almost wrote this negative review last night at about 100 pages in, but decided to persevere in hopes that it would get better once we reached more modern philosophers with better documentation of their personal lives. It did get better, but only mildly. There were moments that made me laugh, but only a handful in the whole book.

would be far better served as a two-part arrangement: a quick survey of the deaths of philosophers, followed by a deeper examination of the handful of philosophers whose work Critchley truly finds valuable. As is, it seems too much like Critchley wants to impress you with his research and then slip a fast one on you by sneaking in his own opinion as fact. I found it frustrating in the same way that I find it frustrating to read 's smug claim to stating The Way Things Are while cutting off at the knees my own ability to critically examine the claims.In the end, the best praise I can give this book is that it was smoothly-written enough that I was over with it fairly quickly. Only a night and a morning spent, and I'm onward to greener pastures.

...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Ryan Holiday rated it really liked it

A wonderful concept for a book. It spends a page and half or so on the deaths of 170 different philosophers. For some, it nicely juxtaposes their beliefs with their practical applications. For others, it illustrates a hypocrisy. Mostly though, I think it does a good job bringing the lot of them back down to earth. The introductions (there are three) are themselves a decent discussion on death and dying. It's one of those books you wish was a Wikipedia page so you could follow all the strands it ...more

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Jun 19, 2009 James Murphy rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book seemed just the ticket when I came across it in a bookstore. It more than beckoned, it produced a siren call. Since there were no masts available to lash myself to, I surrendered and walked zombie-like to the cashier, cradling the book carefully. Drama aside, while I was a while warming up to Critchley's book, it lived up to most of its seductive song. His introductory remarks stated he intended to tell how the philosophers of history died and what we could learn from philosophy about ...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Ainsley kerr rated it it was ok

what the hell was the point of this book. it was like reading who magazine for philosophy geeks. super lame. the thing i'm angriest about is that this book is so utterly forgetable that one day in the future i will probably accidentally read it again.

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May 30, 2012 BHodges rated it liked it

Like any popular overview of the history of philosophic thought on a given subject, Critchley's cuts some corners, collapses important distinctions (especially in regards to Christianity), and in general has to leave out a good deal of interesting stuff just to get through the story he selected to tell. That said, this is a really fun meditation upon death through the thoughts and deaths of a wide swath of (mostly but not entirely Western) philosophers from Thales and Plato to Foucalt and ...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Brenda Clough rated it it was ok

This review first appeared in the International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association Magazine (www.iccfa.com)
People have been thinking about death for a long time. I am a big fan of not reinventing the wheel. If some expert has already figured it out, why not consult him? Philosophers are professional thinkers on the larger issues, so they are the natural go-to for questions of life and death. However, there has not been a handy compendium of their musings on the subject -- until now.

...more

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Oct 21, 2010 Jon rated it did not like it

I was a philosophy major and I love the premise of this book. However, it was just too dry and exhaustive for my taste.

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May 25, 2017 María rated it liked it

This book kinda disappointed me a little. I was expecting to learn a little more about phillosophy and fun facts about philosophers' lifes, and while it does provide that at some points, it is generally a little erratic and sometimes you feel as if there was no pattern and the author added some people just because. Take Demetrio, just one line about him. I mean, he could just have left him out if he was going to write just one line about him (and Demetrio doesn't even have an interesting death ...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Laura Walsh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This little book was an absolute delight! A great book to pique one's interest and to further one's knowledge of philosophy. So many tidbits of information about these 'serious' thinkers (men and women!) made them so much more relate-able. They may have all been great intellects in their own right, but the personal touches took them a bit off their pedestals, out of their ivory towers and much more accessible.

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Apr 21, 2009 Andy rated it it was ok

The Book of Dead Philosophers is a motley collection of some 3000 years of philosophy and philosophizing, touching on philosophers from both Western and Eastern traditions and nicely emphasizing the under-appreciated contributions of women. With the immense scope of Critchley’s project, we get some interesting glimpses of the history of philosophy in extreme fast-forward, juxtaposing schools of thought otherwise separated by many centuries.

I loved the concept, and so I really expected to enjoy ...more

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Apr 14, 2009 doreen rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction-social-cultural, non-fiction-philosophy

The reviews thus far are pretty split on this book. I'd really give it a 3-and-a-half, but Goodreads wouldn't let me do this.

Best-suited for someone with at least a bit of a background in philosophy. If you've taken a course at community college and barely passed, then this won't help you if you need to retake the class. Although I've taken said community college class (and got an A, thank you), it's been a while, and although I have a good interest in philosophy, with the numerous amount of ...more

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Jul 21, 2009 David Gordon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews

When I picked up "The Book of Dead Philosophers," by Simon Critchley, I was hoping that that collection of words would expand my knowledge of philosophy. I was so wrong.

As the title reads, "The Book of Dead Philosophers," that is exactly what is included in this relatively short book of 250 pages. It is a collection of obituaries of 190 philosophers that is enlightening, thought provoking, and at times often funny.

This book is a perfect read for some one that needs to consume a few minutes here ...more

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Oct 22, 2014 Ioannis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Philosophy in 190 small parts. Actually, death in 190 parts. This book is not about to teach philosophy to anyone, not even to introduce it. Its not even about how philosophers live. It's about how philosophers die. What was the causes of their death and what they believe for it. It's well written with funny facts and a thin irony. This book is a proof that even death can be the cause for some laughs. Recommended for all those who afraid to die. (Don't worry, we are almost 90%. The other 10% ...more

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Mar 24, 2010 Vicky rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"The book of dead philosophers" reminds me of the "Sophie's world" by Gaader. For people who don't know much about philosophy it is a good introduction. The point is that here is too much fragmented information to really enjoy this book. The 190 philosophers are all dead and here is the attempt to see the question of mortality through the eyes of the great minds.

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Sep 07, 2017 Adam Bricker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

From a sentence to a few pages this book visits with nearly 200 philosophers and gives a snippet of their lives, opinions and deaths. A very interesting read.

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May 23, 2014 Adam rated it liked it

I was quite enjoying this but its one of the few books I've ever lost interest in enough to stop reading. I never did get round to finishing it.

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Jan 01, 2020 Erik rated it it was amazing

This is ideal popular non-fiction: it's fun to read while making you think. Just a heads up: several of the philosophers are religious folks. That works well here because getting a refresher on what Christianity actually says about life and death and comparing that with secular thinkers clarifies a lot of things. Pair this with Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End and you might actually make peace with your own mortality!

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Feb 28, 2018 Keri Kresler rated it liked it

Very thorough book if you want a little taste of all different kinds of philosophy. Especially the philosophy of death. And also sometimes humerous.

Apparently a read this a little at a time over four years. I didn't think it had been that long, but I reade it in between everything else I forget to write down.

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Aug 06, 2018 Mycala rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: made-me-think, philosophy, 2018

I had jury duty today, so I packed this little guy I've had on my "to read" shelf for a few months. It kept me entertained, amused, and in a thoughtful frame of mind and I read through the entire thing. I highly recommend it, particularly for an occasion such as jury duty.

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Feb 12, 2017 Wendy 'windmill' rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fantastic!

A very well written, interesting, informative, easy read & very humorous!
Thoroughly enjoyed every word & chapter. I also enjoyed the interesting excepts of female philosophers.

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Jan 05, 2020 Jan Ayers rated it really liked it

It's one of those books to dip into here and there. I think I've finished it, but I've been reading over a long period. I keep it in the loo and I don't mind rereading passages.

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Feb 11, 2019 Wilbur rated it liked it · review of another edition

Interesting. Cursory coverage of 190 philosophers. Too brief.

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Oct 15, 2017 Michael Flick rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Spoiled by flippancy.

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Jan 26, 2009 Anna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-for-watermark, biography-memoir, philosophy

In my former life as a St. John’s College undergraduate, I read a lot of philosophy. I’m not bragging, especially: around about junior year, I realized I don’t really care for the genre (preferring the more oblique and elegant stylings of literature). By then it was too late, and I was doomed to apologetically telling people I’d majored in philosophy to the end of my days. But while I remain, I think, well versed in all the heavy hitters (Plato, Aquinas, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche), and have dim In my former life as a St. John’s College undergraduate, I read a lot of philosophy. I’m not bragging, especially: around about junior year, I realized I don’t really care for the genre (preferring the more oblique and elegant stylings of literature). By then it was too late, and I was doomed to apologetically telling people I’d majored in philosophy to the end of my days. But while I remain, I think, well versed in all the heavy hitters (Plato, Aquinas, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche), and have dim memories of less well-known thinkers such as Maimonides, Averroes, Plotinus (well, I remember the book was green), because of St. John’s academically sui generis notion that it’s the texts and not the author’s historical contexts that matter, I know next to nothing about the lives of these men. (Yes, they’re all men. And mostly white. That’s a can of worms for another day.) Simon Critchley’s straightforwardly titled “The Book of Dead Philosophers” remedies at least part of this gap in my background by presenting pithy and often quite funny accounts of the lives, ideas, and most importantly, demises of 190 philosophers, from Thales (originator of the maxim “Know thyself,” who believed water was the universal element) to (prematurely) Simon Critchley (entire entry: “Exit, pursued by a bear.”).
Some highlights from the catalogue: William of Ockham (of Razor fame) perished in the Black Death. Thomas Hobbes, who called man’s life in the state of nature “nasty, brutish, and short,” lived till his nineties, which he attributed to eating lots of fish, vigourous walks, daily massages, and singing loudly in bed. Jean-Jacques Rousseau died of cerebral hemorrhage, possibly a consequence of having been knocked down two years earlier by a Great Dane running at full speed. Jeremy Bentham’s body (though not his head, which was commonly stolen by prankish students) sits preserved in a glass case at University College London (Mark’s seen him!). Sigmund Freud’s prolific cigar smoking led to numerous mouth cancers. Michel Foucault was an early victim of AIDS.
Why take this morbid approach to the history of philosophy, you ask? Critchely takes his epigram from my all-time fave, the charming, wide-ranging inventor of the personal essay, Michel de Montaigne: “If I were a maker of books, I would make a register, with comments, of various deaths. He who would teach men to die would teach them to live.” Montaigne’s subject in the essay the quote is taken from is Cicero’s adage “to philosophize is to learn how to die.” As Critchely says, “[t:]he main task of philosophy, in this view, is to prepare us for death, provide a kind of training for death, the cultivation of an attitude toward our finitude that faces—and faces down—the terror of annihilation.” It is this attitude that Critchley finds dangerously lacking in this era, where longevity is “the sole unquestioned good of contemporary Western life,” no matter at what cost it is obtained. “The Book of Dead Philosophers,” then, is itself a serious work of philosophy, examining the connection between the examined life and its usually ordinary, often ignominious end, with no less a goal that assuaging our fear of death.
And how did Montaigne die? In 1592, of quinsy (peritonsillar abcess), unable to speak, but apparently unafraid. ...more

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Jul 13, 2019 Brook Louis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Philosophers that philosophize can be too philosophical sometimes... However, this book helped me understand main concepts from historical and modern philosophers, while also making me laugh—and, of course, contemplate death. Simon Critchley makes death approachable as well as entertaining. My first, but most definitely not last, book of his.

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Jun 24, 2009 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Basically a bit of a biographical and philosophical survey of about 190 philosophers, from Thales up to Critchley himself, The Book of Dead Philosophers is more of a cereal box entertainment than anything else. How can a man's life be put into 500 words, and how can 190 of these brief, brief lives tell us anything about death? I appreciate this book as a sort of goofy primer of the thoughts on death of some of the greatest thinkers in history, but as a way to aquaint oneself with these men and Basically a bit of a biographical and philosophical survey of about 190 philosophers, from Thales up to Critchley himself, The Book of Dead Philosophers is more of a cereal box entertainment than anything else. How can a man's life be put into 500 words, and how can 190 of these brief, brief lives tell us anything about death? I appreciate this book as a sort of goofy primer of the thoughts on death of some of the greatest thinkers in history, but as a way to aquaint oneself with these men and women, I find Critchley's work trite and unmemorable. So now I know that Deleuze jumped out the window of his hospital room. Okay. Interesting. Critchley, in his introduction, suggests that these deaths, in their myriad details, tells us something about dying, but all they tell us, is that philosophers die much like the rest of humanity, horrifyingly randomly. Still, this might make a fun little primer for a high school student, or maybe a Intro to Philosophy, and is written in clear, entertaining prose - a certain break from the writings of these philosophers.

Critchley's itnroduction is an apology dodging accusations of new-age, self-help sophistry, and he does a good job of convincing us that his book might help us relax, laugh, and live with death. The Pre-Socratics through the Socratics turn out to be less than noble, flatulent rock stars, dying a multitude of humorous deaths, some heroic, many not. Philosophers are pug-faced dogs, ugly, dirty men. Christianity robbed philosophy, and us, of our intimacy and acceptance of death as it is, an unknown, to be left that way.

Once we get to modern Europe, the outlooks on death of philosophers is unexceptional, and held by the common man, an organization of a modern clear folk wisdom, clouded not by irrationality. With the Rationalists, the true end of philosophy, we learn that nothing means anything, not death, nor suicide, nor earthly attachments, nor this book. Jokers and bon-vivants, let's all be philosophers.

With the 19th century philosophers, Critchley hits his stride, here his stories become illuminating in a way that they have not been up to this point. Too little, too late? The deaths of those philosophers who have died within Critchley's lifetime, especially those he worked with, naturally, are much more poignant, showing Arendt's idea that our deaths are measured and codified in a great way by the deaths of others. ...more

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Aug 24, 2016 Lucas Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I purchased this book on a whim. I am teaching a class for high school seniors this year called Global Humanities. It is a wonderful idea that sometimes lacks in execution. As I was preparing to begin the school year, my personal definition of the humanities began to spiral somewhat. This book, a compendium of the deaths of some 190 odd philosophers seemed like the perfect companion to my year of teaching reluctant teenagers what it means to be a human in the world.

Lots of the negative reviews I purchased this book on a whim. I am teaching a class for high school seniors this year called Global Humanities. It is a wonderful idea that sometimes lacks in execution. As I was preparing to begin the school year, my personal definition of the humanities began to spiral somewhat. This book, a compendium of the deaths of some 190 odd philosophers seemed like the perfect companion to my year of teaching reluctant teenagers what it means to be a human in the world.

Lots of the negative reviews for this book (which I often try to refrain from viewing while I'm reading a book) mistake it for something else. Being disappointed because a book isn't the book you think it should be is categorically different than not thinking that a book is good or bad. This is not a text book about the history of philosophy. This not an encyclopedia or a collection of detailed essays on a representative group of philosophers spanning the entire history of philosophy. If you cravenly think the brief chapter on ancient Chinese philosophy is "trendy," or the inclusion throughout of a handful of lesser known female philosophers is a nod to "political correctness," I think you'd be happier reading philosophy blogs or edited collections. I read this book as a subtle argument being made by the author, as recursive personal essays hidden in the guise of a collection of biographical sketches. It reminded me of David Markson's late quartet of novels beginning with "Reader's Block." Collage, assemblage, commonplace book. These seem much more appropriate ways to describe Mr. Critchley's work than a failed philosophical treatise.

One of the threads that the author pulls through the whole messy collection is that people in the 21st century, particularly in America, have unhealthy views of death and difficult relationships with their own mortality. So it makes sense to disguise a discussion of this topic in a pseudo academic endeavor of collecting stories, myths, and personal anecdotes in relation to the deaths of famous (and less famous) philosophers.

That to philosophize is to learn how to die is the title of the essay of Montaigne from which the books epigraph is taken. Speaking of the necessity to affirm the constraint of our mortality, which defines human freedom, Critchley opines that to philosophize is to learn to love the difficulty of that task. Highly recommended. ...more

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Feb 08, 2010 Book Calendar rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy

The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley

Simon Critchley taught a course at the New School For Social Research called "To Philosophize is to Learn to Die" in 2007. The summarizes of the philosophy and deaths of some 200 different philosophers speaks to this theme. The book begins with the Greeks and ends in the modern day

Each summary runs from a paragraph to a couple of pages depending on the importance of the philosophical figures. The book covers from the period of the early Greeks to ...more

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About Simon Critchley

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Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960 in Hertfordshire) is an English philosopher currently teaching at The New School. He works in continental philosophy. Critchley argues that philosophy commences in disappointment, either religious or political. These two axes may be said largely to inform his published work: religious disappointment raises the question of meaning and has to, as he sees it, ...more

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“Death makes cynics of us all” — 7 likes

“In a seminar at New York University in 1980, Foucault is reported to have said that the difference between late antiquity and early Christianity might be reduced to the following questions: the patrician pagan asks, "Given that I am who I am, whom can I fuck?" That is, given my status in society, who would it be appropriate for me to take as my lover, which girl or boy, woman or man? By contrast, the Christian asks, "Given that I can fuck no one, who am I?" That is, the question of what it means to be human first arises for Christians in the sight of God. ( 239)” — 6 likes

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