During my freshman year of college, I became aware of a curious problem: I despised philosophy. I didn't do well in my first philosophy class. I couldn't stand much of the subject matter (Descartes? Ugh!) and generally just found the whole of it uninteresting. Then I started hanging out with philosophy majors. These guys were, surprisingly, pretty cool. They asked curious, fun questions that were challenging, and yet, entertaining. Somewhere along the line, I suddenly "got" philosophy. For some reason, it was all very interesting now. I read some of Sarte and other existentialists, read some Plato and Aristotle, some Foucalut, took a new course on philosophy and ethics that introduced me to J. S. Mill and the like. While I'm not a philosopher, I certainly gained an appreciation for it. Indeed, I've even begun using it in my actual fields of study.

That little preface lays out the state of mind I was in when I was gifted this book by mother for my birthday in February. She had heard about it form a TV show and thought I would enjoy it. Essentially her criteria for my enjoyment were: 1) It dealt with dead things, 2) It dealt with philosophers, 3) It was British (I'm a huge anglophile). And so for a few weeks The Book of Dead Philosophers sat on my desk, amidst a great many other books. Then in March, I decided I should give it a whirl. I opened it up and, hours later, had a hard time setting it down.

The basic premise of the book is that Critchley is presenting the deaths of roughly 200 prominent (and some not-so-prominent) philosophers. He hopes that in presenting their deaths, and in some cases a summation of their thoughts on death and dying, he can give the audience a way to understand death. The idea of the book is not that the book is a guide on how to die or how to prepare to die, but, rather, how to accept death.  Critchley was inspired to write the book after the death of his mentor and his resultant grief. The book is prefaced with three short essays that explain Cricthley's motivations for writing the book and his approach. While one may be tempted to skip these chapters, they are an important part of understanding the book as a whole. Critchley writes these essays in a very formal style, but one that doesn't hide the very personal reasons he has in writing this book. One downside to the introduction is that some of the more interesting deaths are spoiled in the introduction. While this is a little upsetting, the fact of the matter is that how these famous philosophers died is sometimes just as important as how they lived.

The meat of the book is the presentation of the 200 philosophers.  The books is broken up into 15 sections that roughly correspond to historical epochs and focus on philosophers of the same "school of thought." Each section is then made up of subheadings bearing a philosopher's name with their story underneath. Where possible, Critchley has tried to keep related philosophers together, even if it means some of the entries are out of temporal sequence. The reading is fast but informative. Each philosopher's section is different. Some are as short as two sentences, others take up almost ten pages, forming a mini essay. In all cases, Critchley tries to present as much information as possible. The deaths range from being humorous, sad, curious and mythical - all of them are interesting. In many ways its hard to critique the book simply because so much of it is the presentation of rote facts. Personal highlights include the deaths of Periander&Jeremy Bentham (and his posthumous life!).

Critchely obviously did a vast amount of research in putting this book together and it shows. Indeed, he tried to include non-Western philosophers over the course of the book and was able to include a fair amount of women. Oftentimes these women are not considered philosophers by the world at large, but Critchley makes the case that many of them are regarded as being knowledge women of the time and many were the lovers and wives of prominent philosophers.

Truth told, it is hard for me to find fault with the book. While there are some oversights - most likely in the interest of saving space - I cannot say there is anyone really important I feel is missing. (Socrates does not have a proper entry, but his death is discussed at length in the introduction. A fair trade off for the philosopher with the most famous death.) I will say I do feel the book is slightly weighted for ancient and modern philosophers. Some of the middle sections covering the middle ages seem sparse, mostly populated by Christian Saints. I can only surmise that a lack of information about other philosophers form other regions is the key. Still, perhaps a small entry for Ibn Khaldun, the Arabic polymath currently becoming more well known outside the Islamic world, would have been nice.

In suggesting this book to friends and family, I can't help but feel like Woody Allen in Annie Hall, who was always reading books about death and dying. However, the important thing to remember with the book is that it is not a guide on how to die, nor a "book of the dead" like those from Egypt or Tibet. Those latter books being manuals for how to enter the afterlife. Instead, it is a celebration of deaths both mundane and mind-boggling, silly and sad. I had no idea what to expect when I started reading and found myself devouring it in hours, yet oddly savoring each section. It is certainly engaging and thought provoking and one quickly gets past the novelty of the concept and begins to learn from it.

All told, I simply loved this book. It was probably the best nonfiction piece I have read in years. That is especially high praise because I do not generally pick up nonfiction. The book is a fun read that maintains a level of humor while presenting a sad subject matter. However, I will advise that the book is not exactly an easy read for people who have no knowledge of the field. Critchley does his best to clarify concepts and summarize schools of thought, but there is only so much the author can do before the book becomes a Philosophy 101 course. If a casual reader were to pick this up, I would make sure you have Wikipedia standing by. Despite the heady subject matter, the book reads fast and there is never a sense of one section taking too long. Indeed, in many cases I wish there were more philosophers. I cannot recommend the book highly enough! The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley, published by Vintage Books. On bookshelves now.

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