Dying for Ideas : The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers

What do Socrates, Hypatia, Giordano Bruno, Thomas More, and Jan Patocka have in common? First, they were all faced one day with the most difficult of choices: stay faithful to your ideas and die or renounce them and stay alive. Second, they all chose to die. Their spectacular deaths have become not only an integral part of their biographies, but are also inseparable from their work. A "death for ideas" is a piece of philosophical work in its own right; Socrates may have never written a line, but his death is one of the greatest philosophical best-sellers of all time.

Dying for Ideas explores the limit-situation in which philosophers find themselves when the only means of persuasion they can use is their own dying bodies and the public spectacle of their death. The book tells the story of the philosopher's encounter with death as seen from several angles: the tradition of philosophy as an art of living; the body as the site of self-transcending; death as a classical philosophical topic; taming death and self-fashioning; finally, the philosophers' scapegoating and their live performance of a martyr's death, followed by apotheosis and disappearance into myth.

While rooted in the history of philosophy, Dying for Ideas is an exercise in breaking disciplinary boundaries. This is a book about Socrates and Heidegger, but also about Gandhi's "fasting unto death" and self-immolation; about Girard and Passolini, and self-fashioning and the art of the essay.

“What it all comes down to, unexpectedly enough, is laughter, even if it isn't clear at whose expense the joke has been played. The martyr laughs in the face of death, as More did when joshing with his executioner on the way to the scaffold. 'If you are the first to laugh at yourself,' Bradatan asks, 'what else can death possibly do to you?' … [A] suggestive and finely delineated argument.” – review31.co.uk

“One of the greatest merits of Costica Bradatan's book is that it explores a cluster of topics that represent the untold, the unuttered, almost the unutterable in contemporary philosophy: death, dying, sacrifice and self-sacrifice. Ours is a culture of 'happy endings' and, in this respect, most philosophers of today are the spokespersons of their time. Bradatan is a dissenter. His book approaches death head-on. Indeed, what makes this project fascinating is the fact that, while the book purports to be about 'dying for an idea,' it in fact sings praise to life. Death, in Bradatan's view, is something that brings new meaning to life, a renewed intensity to the act of living.” —Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

“A thoroughly stimulating exploration of philosophers and their courageous deaths, pushing us to reflect on the fascinating question: what is philosophy for?” —Sarah Bakewell, author of 'How to Live: A Life of Montaigne'

“Written with verve and humor, at once deeply learned and wickedly ironic, this book explores how philosophy is not only an art of living but also an art of dying - and dying well! Original and irreverent!” —Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor for Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University, USA

“Accessible, penetrating and erudite, [Dying For Ideas is] a beautifully written book which reveals that philosophy is not about academics grinding out dry papers but about mortals confronting the truths of the human condition in order to develop an art of living ... Bradatan has achieved something special in writing this book. As a comprehensive philosophy of death, it amounts to a profound philosophy of the true nature of philosophy itself” —Morning Star Online

“An intriguing 'dramatic narrative' of philosophers' clash with death … Bradatan's rich examination of the philosopher's act of dying for ideas brings into focus the riskiness of living for them as well.” —Times Higher Education

“Dying for Ideas: The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers [is] a stimulating spiritual journey through an essential topic of human existence, and a reading of the history of human vision about it... Bradatan's highly intelligent and challenging book is an exemplary scrutiny of the life of the human mind, the human soul and body.” —Norman Manea, Los Angeles Review of Books

“My brief summary does not do justice to the sometimes dazzling erudition on display in the book. Bradatan weaves together philosophy and biography to discuss his chosen philosopher-martyrs, interjecting bits of film criticism and analysis of pictorial art along the way … Bradatan also draws attention to philosophers whose work deserves to be more widely known.” -Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

“Books on philosophy are rarely page-turners, but Bradatan takes us through a fascinating exploration of the existential limit-situation in which philosophers find themselves when their only means of communicating the truth is their own dying bodies and the public spectacle of their death.” –Anders Draeby Sorenson, Andersdraeby.com