Simon Critchley

This book is not a suicide note. Ten days after Edouard Leve handed in the manuscript of Suicide to his publisher in 2007, he hanged himself in his apartment. He was 42. Two years after Jean Amery's On Suicide was published in 1976, the author took an overdose of sleeping pills. He was 65. In 1960, some eighteen years after Albert Camus had raised and - so he thought - resolved the question of suicide in The Myth of Sisyphus, he was killed in a car accident. He is alleged to have said that dying in a car crash is the most absurd of all deaths. The absurdity of his death is compounded by the fact he had an unused train ticket in his pocket. He was 46. Let me say at the outset, at the risk of disappointing the reader, that I have no plans to kill myself ... just yet. Nor do I wish to join the chorus of those who proclaim loudly against suicide and claim that the act of taking one's own life is irresponsible and selfish, even shameful and cowardly, that people must stay alive whatever the cost. Suicide, in my view, is neither a legal nor moral offence, and should not be seen as such. My intention here is to simply try to understand the phenomenon, the act itself, what precedes it and what follows. I'd like to consider suicide from the point of view of those who have made the leap, or have come close to it-we might even find that the capacity to take that leap is what picks us out as humans. I want to look at suicide closely, carefully, and perhaps a little coldly, without immediately leaping to judgements or asserting moral principles like the right to life or death. We have to look suicide in the face, long and hard, and see what features, what profile, what inherited character traits and wrinkles emerge. Perhaps what we see when we look closely is our own distorted reflection staring back at us.

Notes on Suicide

"From the curator of The New York Times's "The Stone," a provocative and timely exploration into tragedy--how it articulates conflicts and contradiction that we need to address in order to better understand the world we live in. We might think we are through with the past, but the past isn't through with us. Tragedy permits us to come face to face with what we do not know about ourselves but that which makes those selves who we are. Having Been Born is a compelling examination of ancient Greek origins in the development and history of tragedy--a story that represents what we thought we knew about the poets, dramatists, and philosophers of ancient Greece--and shows them to us in an unfamiliar, unexpected, and original light"--

Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us

This is part novel, part prose poem illuminated by a series of photographs of New York buildings gradually making and unmaking themselves.

Memory Theatre

Simon Critchley's Very Short Introduction shows that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida, and introduces key concepts such as existentialism, nihilism, and phenomenology by explaining their place in the Continental tradition. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Peter Catapano

"Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments explores long-standing ethical and moral issues in light of our most urgent dilemmas. Divided into twelve sections, the book opens with a series of broad arguments on existence, human nature and morality. Indeed, "big" questions of the human condition are explored by some of our best-known and most accomplished living philosophers: What is the meaning of our existence? Should we really "do what we love"? How should we respond to evil? Is pure altruism possible?"--Jacket.

A Stone Reader

Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments

The book of dead philosophers

A timeless volume to be read and treasured, The Stone Reader provides an unparalleled overview of contemporary philosophy.

Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments

The Stone Reader

Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance

Infinitely Demanding

Arka Kapak Simon Critchley boşaltmak üzere geldiği ofisinde, ölmüş bir filozof arkadaşının yayınlanmamış yazılarını, hazırladığı tuhaf bir takım kartları içeren ve her birinin üzerinde burç işaretleri olan kutular bulur. Yalnız bir burç eksiktir. Karıştırdığı bu kutular arasında kadim hatırlama sanatı hakkında parlak bir metin ve çeşitli filozofların hayatlarının dönüm noktalarını kaydedip ölecekleri tarihleri tahmin eden astroloji kartları bulur. Bunlardan birisi de kendisi hakkındadır; çok ciddiye almamış gibi yapar ama fena halde meraklanmıştır. Neden sonra son kutuyu da bulur, onun içinden de Giulio Camillo’nun on altıncı yüzyılda dönemin bilgi birikiminin neredeyse tamamını içerecek şekilde tasarladığı bellek tiyatrosunun maketi çıkar. Maketle birlikte sanrılar da başlar... Felsefi metinleriyle tanıdığımız Critchley’in bu kitabının türünü belirlemek biraz zor. Edebi bir dille yazılmış bir kurmaca, yer yer otobiyografi, felsefi bir risale ve tarihsel bir inceleme... güzelliği de burada. YAZAR HAKKINDA: 1960 doğumlu İngiliz filozof. 2004 yılından beri New York’ taki New School for Social Research’de felsefe alanında ders vermekte ve kıta Avrupası felsefesi, felsefe tarihi, edebiyat, etik ve siyaset konusunda çalışmaktadır. Uzun bir süre etik felsefesi, özellikle de Emmanuel Levinas’ın etiği konusundaki çalışmalarıyla ve Beckett, Wallace Stevens gibi edebiyatçıların eserleriyle felsefe arasındaki ilişkiyi inceleyen metinleriyle tanınan Critchley, son dönemlerde daha çok anarşizan bir sol siyaset geliştirme imkânları üzerinde kafa yormaktadır.

Bellek tiyatrosu

فيم نفكر حين نفكر في كرة القدم؟

Suicide

A highly entertaining route into philosophers and their theories, this perfect book to dip into as well as absorb at length is full of quirky stories from prolific, bestselling author and philosopher Simon Critchley.Critchley pulls readers in with hilarious short stories of how various philosophers died and then linking this to their central ideas. He then confronts the big themes-in this case, what "a good death" means and how to live with the knowledge of death and free from what he calls "delusions and sophistries."Entries run from a couple of sentences in the case of the Pre-Socratics or minor Medievals and Moderns, up to a paragraph and short essays of about 800 words for such as Socrates, Seneca, Rousseau, Kant and Nietzsche.

The Book of Dead Philosophers

A timeless volume to be read and treasured, The Stone Reader provides an unparalleled overview of contemporary philosophy. Once solely the province of ivory-tower professors and college classrooms, contemporary philosophy was finally emancipated from its academic closet in 2010, when The Stone was launched in The New York Times. First appearing as an online series, the column quickly attracted millions of readers through its accessible examination of universal topics like the nature of science, consciousness and morality, while also probing more contemporary issues such as the morality of drones, gun control and the gender divide. Now collected for the first time in this handsomely designed volume, The Stone Reader presents 133 meaningful and influential essays from the series, placing nearly the entirety of modern philosophical discourse at a reader’s grasp. The book, divided into four broad sections—Philosophy, Science, Religion and Morals, and Society—opens with a series of questions about the scope, history and identity of philosophy: What are the practical uses of philosophy? Does the discipline, begun in the West in ancient Greece with Socrates, favor men and exclude women? Does the history and study of philosophy betray a racial bias against non-white thinkers, or geographical bias toward the West? These questions and others form a foundation for readers as the book moves to the second section, Science, where some of our most urgent contemporary philosophical debates are taking place. Will artificial intelligence compromise our morality? Does neuroscience undermine our free will? Is there is a legitimate place for the humanities in a world where science and technology appear to rule? Should the evidence for global warming change the way we live, or die? In the book’s third section, Religion and Morals, we find philosophy where it is often at its best, sharpest and most disturbing—working through the arguments provoked by competing moral theories in the face of real-life issues and rigorously addressing familiar ethical dilemmas in a new light. Can we have a true moral life without belief in God? What are the dangers of moral relativism? In its final part, Society, The Stone Reader returns to its origins as a forum to encourage philosophers who are willing to engage closely, critically and analytically with the affairs of the day, including economic inequality, technology and racial discrimination. In directly confronting events like the September 11 attacks, the killing of Trayvon Martin, the Sandy Hook School massacre, the essays here reveal the power of philosophy to help shape our viewpoints on nearly every issue we face today. With an introduction by Peter Catapano that details the column’s founding and distinct editorial process at The New York Times, and prefatory notes to each section by Simon Critchley, The Stone Reader promises to become not only an intellectual landmark but also a confirmation that philosophy is, indeed, for everyone.

The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments

Mysticism is about existential ecstasy - an experience of heightening one's senses and self into a sheer feeling of aliveness. Mystical experiences offer us a practical way to open our thoughts and deepen the sense of our lives, whether through a mainstream connection to God or by taking part in mind-altering experiences.

Here, Simon Critchley explores the history and practice of mysticism, from its origins in Eastern and Western religion, through its association with esoteric and occult knowledge, and up to the ecstatic modernism of T.S. Eliot and others. Through a discussion of the lives of famous mystics, like Julian of Norwich and Jesus Christ, Critchley reveals how embracing the spectrum of mystical experience can refresh our thinking and help us live deeper and freer lives.

Philosophical and playful, analytical and inventive, On Mysticism is a definitive account of humanity's quest to understand the divine, and a call to thinkers everywhere to broaden our minds to life larger than our selves.

The Experience of Ecstasy

On Mysticism

Kevin Perry

An Illuminating Guide to History's Greatest Thinkers

Philosophy

Richard Rorty

Ernesto Laclau

Jaques Derrida

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Deconstruction and Pragmatism

Tragedy, the Greeks and Us

Imansizlarin Imani

Jamieson Webster

The figure of Hamlet haunts our culture like the ghost haunts Shakespeare’s melancholy Dane. Arguably, no literary work is more familiar to us. Everyone knows at least six words from Hamlet, and most people know many more. Yet the play—Shakespeare’s longest—is more than “passing strange,” and it becomes even more complex when considered closely. Reading Hamlet alongside other writers, philosophers, and psychoanalysts—Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Freud, Lacan, Nietzsche, Melville, and Joyce—Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster go in search of a particularly modern drama that is as much about ourselves as it is a product of Shakespeare’s imagination. They also offer a startling interpretation of the action onstage: it is structured around “nothing”—or, in the enigmatic words of the player queen, “it nothing must.” From the illusion of theater and the spectacle of statecraft to the psychological interplay of inhibition and emotion, Hamlet discloses the modern paradox of our lives: how thought and action seem to pull against each other, the one annulling the possibility of the other. As a counterweight to Hamlet’s melancholy paralysis, Ophelia emerges as the play’s true hero. In her madness, she lives the love of which Hamlet is incapable. Avoiding the customary clichés about the timelessness of the Bard, Critchley and Webster show the timely power of Hamlet to cast light on the intractable dilemmas of human existence in a world that is rotten and out of joint.

Simon Critchley

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