Is Suicide a Right? - Simon Critchley November 10, 2009

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/10/09/Simon_Critchley_To_Philosophize_Is_to_Learn_How_to_Die

Philosopher Simon Critchley examines Western cultural attitudes on suicide since the advent of Christianity. Critchley argues for suicide as a dignified way to end one's life in the case of terminal illness, and calls for a rational, "mature" cultural discussion on the issue.

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English philosopher Simon Critchley, chair and professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research, discusses his 2009 New York Times bestseller, The Book of Dead Philosophers.

Starting with Cicero's axiom, "To philosophize is to learn how to die," Professor Critchley leads us to his conclusion that to die is to learn how to live. The Daily Telegraph called the book "rigorous, profound, and frequently hilarious" and described Critchley as "an engaging and deadpan guide to the metaphysical necropolis" as well as "bracingly serious and properly comic."

Simon Critchley was born in Hertfordshire in 1960, and currently lives and works in New York as Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He failed dramatically at school before failing in a large number of punk bands in the late 70s and failing as a poet some time later.

This was followed by failure as a radical political activist. By complete accident, he ended up at university when he was 22 and decided to stay. He found a vocation in teaching philosophy, although his passions still lie in music, poetry and politics. The Book of Dead Philosophers is his eighth book.