Simon Critchley on the History of Death (transcript) Transcript Question: How do contemporary societies conceive of death? Critchley: Every culture has had rituals around death, all right. Question: How did the Greeks conceive of death? Critchley: Philosophy begins with Plato, with Plato’s transcriptions of these dialogues. Literary Encyclopedia | Welcome
Biocentrism Explains Why There’s No Time and No Death Okay, I admit it. They had me at “You won’t actually die.” I want to believe. The idea sprang from Lanza’s observation of a spider monitoring its web. In a column Lanza and Berman wrote for Aeon, they say “It turns out that everything we see and experience is a whirl of information occurring in our head… Rather, space and time are the tools our mind uses to put it all together.” The authors cite a range of intellectual luminaries who themselves had doubts about times’ reality, including Albert Einstein, who wrote on the passing of his friend Michele Besso, “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. British physicist Julian Barbour also says time isn't real: “Quite the contrary, time is an abstraction at which we arrive through the changes of things.” In biocentrism, we could think of time like a CD music album: All the music’s all there all the time; the only thing that changes, essentially, is which song we listen to. Headline image: Phillip Pessar
Encyclopedia of Myths List of unusual deaths This is a list of unusual deaths. This list includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history, noted as being unusual by multiple sources. Some of the deaths are mythological or are considered to be unsubstantiated by contemporary researchers. Oxford Dictionaries defines the word "unusual" as "not habitually or commonly occurring or done" and "remarkable or interesting because different from or better than others."[1] Some other articles also cover deaths that might be considered unusual or ironic, including List of entertainers who died during a performance, List of inventors killed by their own inventions, List of association footballers who died while playing, List of professional cyclists who died during a race and the List of political self-immolations. Antiquity[edit] Middle Ages[edit] Renaissance[edit] 18th century[edit] 19th century[edit] 20th century[edit] 1920s[edit] 1950s[edit] 1960s[edit] 1961: U.S. 1970s[edit] 1980s[edit] 1990s[edit]
Hazor • WebBible Encyclopedia • ChristianAnswers.Net The most well-known city of Hazor is near Lake Merom, where it was strategically located on ancient trade routes from the north, east and west. It was controlled by both the Canaanites and Israelites, and was a major military objective of various ancient kings from as far away as Egypt. It is now the largest archaeological site in Israel. “A stronghold of the Canaanites in the mountains north of Lake Merom (Josh. 11:1-5). Jabin the king with his allied tribes here encountered Joshua in a great battle. Joshua gained a signal victory, which virtually completed his conquest of Canaan (11:10-13). Why Dig Hazor? “Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. The first Israeli excavator of Hazor, Yigel Yadin, and the present excavator, Amnon Ben-Tor, believe the burn level of the Late Bronze II period is evidence of Joshuas destruction. Sculpture in basalt of a seated king or pagan deity.
Alan Watts on Death, in a Beautiful Animated Short Film by Maria Popova “Think about that for a while — it’s kind of a weird feeling when you really think about it…” Philosopher and writer Alan Watts (1915-1973) is best-known for authoring the cult-classic The Way of Zen and popularizing Eastern philosophy in the West alongside John Cage. In this hauntingly beautiful animation based on a Watts lecture, produced by Luke Jurevicius and directed by Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment, Watts considers what death might be, exploring the notion of nonexistence and pitting it as “the necessary consequence of what we call being.” UPDATE: A reader points out that the animation comes from a video for “Sometimes the Stars” by Australian band The Audreys from their 2010 debut album of the same title. What you see here is a mashup of the video and an Alan Watts recording. What’s it gonna be like, dying? Complement with Watts’s poignant probing of what you would do if money were no object. Donating = Loving Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. Share on Tumblr
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