The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon CritchleyPublisher: Vintage Books 2009
Paperback 265 pages
In turns humorous and insightful, Critchley details the deaths of great philosophers from the Greeks to modern day. While many of the philosophers that you would expect are included: Aristotle, Plato, Martin Luther, David Hume, Nietzsche; the author also includes more obscure men of thinking whose contributions to the art may not be known by most non-philosophy majors.
I especially enjoyed the section on Eastern philosophers and in particular Zhuangzi (369 - 286 BC). The core of his belief was that everything should be allowed to behave in accordance with its own nature. On the subject of death Zhuangzi proclaimed:
"The great earth burdens me with a body, forces upon me the toil of life, eases me in old age, and calms me in death. If life is good, death is good also."
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