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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.