The great thinkers of human history,
In the last moments of life,
What do they think and how do they do it?
Socrates
Socrates, ancient Greek philosopher, thinker
A man told Socrates, "The Thirty Tyrants have sentenced you to death. He responded, "Let them be." Similarly, Socrates threw the issue to the prosecutors as well as the jury, claiming they should face death with confidence. After being sentenced to death, Socrates concluded his speech with the following astonishing words:
"Now the time has come to break up, I will die, you live; who is happier, only God knows."
This sentence condenses the attitude of classical philosophy toward death: death is not worth fearing at all; on the contrary, death is still the basis of life. Socrates' enigmatic last words, "Kerry, we should offer a chicken to Asclepius," express the view that death is the medicine of life. Asclepius was the god of medicine, and people suffering from disease sacrificed to him before going to bed in the hope that he would awaken the sick. Death, then, is just a therapeutic slumber.
Diogenes
Diogenes, ancient Greek philosopher, cynic
When asked how he wanted to be buried, Diogenes said "face down." Senyads asked him why he did this, only to receive a riddle-like answer:
"Because it won't be long before the face facing down will turn upside down and turn upwards."
Epicurus
Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher, atheist
After suffering two weeks of suffering from kidney stones, Epicurus died of extreme pain from kidney failure. However, on his deathbed, friends and students gathered around him, and he was very relieved to walk. In his last letter to Hermacules, Epicurus wrote:
"On the happiest and final day of my life, I was suffering from bladder and bowel diseases, which were at their worst."
But, surprisingly, he went on to write:
"But just remembering my rational and research results, and remembering the soul satisfaction they bring, is enough to offset all the pain."
Confucius
Confucius, Chinese thinker, founder of the Confucian school
According to legend, when Confucius knew that his limit was approaching, the following desperate scene appeared in his dream:
"The world has been out of order for a long time, and no one can understand how to achieve the ideal. Last night, I dreamed that I was sitting in the middle of an offering between two pillars, in which the coffin was placed. ”
"There is no way in the world for a long time, mo Neng Zongyu." Yesterday Twilight Yu Dream sat between two pillars of Mo."
Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi, Chinese thinker
When Zhuangzi was about to die, his students wanted to prepare a luxurious Confucian funeral for him. But he refused, saying, "The sun and the earth will be my coffin." The students objected, saying, "We are afraid that your body will be pecked at by crows and eagles." Zhuangzi gave a very famous answer:
"Placed on the ground is eaten by crows and eagles, and buried in the ground is eaten by ants." Therefore, you are feeding the ants for the food of crows and eagles, why should you be so eccentric! ”
"On the top is the eclipse of the black kite, and on the bottom is the food of the ants, and it is so partial to take the other and this!"
For Zhuangzi, existence is reasonable, and nothing is bad. Death is simply a transition from one form of existence to another. If we can find happiness in this existence, then why can't we also find happiness in new forms of existence such as the food of the ants, the food of the crows, and the food of the eagle? Existence is defined by the transformation from one form to another, and all forms must be accepted as they are. So, Zhuangzi wrote:
"Life and death never cease to transform. They are the beginning of the unfinished business. Once we understand this principle, we can strike a balance between life and death. ”
"The party is born and the party dies, the party dies and the party lives, and the party cannot be; the party cannot be."
Augustine
Augustine, roman Catholic thinker
The Biography of Augustine was written by Bishop Posidius thirty years after Augustine's death. During a fourteen-month siege of the city of Hippo by a "barbarian army of vandals and Alans, as well as some Gothic tribes and other tribes", Augustine fell ill and suffered a severe fever. Honoratus asked him whether bishops and priests should resign from the church in the face of the enemy, and Augustine wrote a very eloquent long article condemning this practice. He believed that the duty of the clergy was to stand with the faithful, not to hand them over to the pagan "wolves."
Augustine died at the age of 76, having been a priest and bishop for forty years in the city of Hippo in present-day Algeria. When he was dying, he asked to be alone. Augustine had people copy David's psalms and read them aloud, "tears flowing endlessly." Augustine left no will because, as a poor man, he had nothing left behind.
Machiavelli
Machiavelli is an Italian political thinker and historian
Machiavelli died in frustration, leaving behind his family, who were trapped in extreme poverty. In the last years of his life, he was removed from the government position he aspired to because of his past close ties to the Medici royal family, which had now lost its ruling power in Florence.
Since his death, Machiavelli has gained a world-renowned notoriety, with Shakespeare describing him as "the inhuman Machiavelli" in Henry VI. I am more inclined to Rousseau's assessment of Machiavelli: "An honest man, a good citizen." In a letter written two months before his death, Machiavelli wrote of Florence:
"I love my hometown more than I love my soul." Sadly, this does not stop the city's citizens from being ungrateful, fickle, lying and deceitful.
Thomas · Moore
Thomas Mohr is a British politician and humanist
Suspected of disobeying the pope's authority, More refused to bless Henry VIII's marriage to his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and was sentenced to death as a traitor. This meant that More was subjected to a terrible hanging, and the body was unloaded in eight pieces, although Henry VIII later graciously changed the hanging to beheading. In the Tower of London prison, More wrote a beautiful dialogue called "A Conversation Between Happiness and Suffering." At the end of the conversation, More ponders the prospects of a tragic death. In his conclusion, More heroically stated that the mere thought of Christ's tragic death was enough to satisfy us with a tragic death for Him. Mohr writes:
"Remember, if it is possible for you and me to bear all the suffering of the world, but to make us enjoy the joy we yearn for forever, this pain is nothing. Therefore, I ask you not to forget that joy and to banish all worldly sufferings from your heart. ”
On the firing table, Mohr said to the executioner:
"You make sure I get up safely, and as for how to get down, I've arranged it myself."
As a significant change from the traditional execution ritual, Mohr blindfolded and calmly awaited execution.
Hobbes
Hobbes, British politician and philosopher
In his book Leviathan, Hobbes famously describes human life in a natural state as follows: "lonely, poor, despicable, vulgar, and short-lived." Although Hobbes's life was not without drama—his mother had given birth to him when he was frightened by the Spanish Armada—and his relationship with the king and the Congress was problematic—none of the above words seemed to apply to him at least. He lived to be 90 years old and has been a man of great writing. This was nothing short of miraculous in the turbulent England of the 17th century.
Regarding death, he wrote:
"We shouldn't mourn one person's death for long, or we won't have much time to mourn others."
Hobbes suffered from "painful urinary drainage," a severe pain during urination, most likely due to bladder ulceration. It is said that he once told a doctor that he would feel better if he could find a hole and climb into it to escape the world. After a stroke he was paralyzed on the right half of his body and died.
Descartes
Descartes, French philosopher
In Stockholm, Descartes had only one friend: the French ambassador, Chanut. Unfortunately, he was the one who infected the virus that killed Descartes. However, Chanu was cured by bloodletting, but Descartes thought that the treatment was absurd, and he hoped that it would be a natural cure. He had a persistent fever that worsened ten days later. It is said that before losing consciousness, Descartes said the following in the manner of Socrates or Plotino:
"O soul, you have been imprisoned for so long, and it is time to get rid of the burden of the flesh and leave this cage. You must summon up the courage to accept happily the pain of separation. ”
Voltaire
Voltaire, French thinker, writer
There are many rumors that Voltaire died in Paris at the age of 84. In Condorcet's Biography of Voltaire, a abbot received a religious confession that Voltaire had completed before his death. In the text, Voltaire declared that he was "born in the Catholic Church and will die in the Catholic Church." Upon hearing this news, the priest of the Diocese of St. Jesus was furious and offered a more detailed discussion on theology with the skeptical Enlightenment philosopher. The parish priest, knowing that Voltaire had denied the sanctity of Christ in his tireless speeches against the Catholic Church, kept shouting in Voltaire's ear: "Do you believe in the sanctity of Christ?" Voltaire replied:
"In the name of God, sir, don't mention this man to me more, let me die peacefully!"
Another version goes like this: Voltaire is about to gasp for breath when suddenly the bedside lamp flashes, causing him to shout:
"What sound?" Is the fire of hell ready? ”
And his Philosophical Dictionary clearly states:
"Hell is a stupid thing to fool the poor and the ignorant."
Hume
Hume, English philosopher
In a brief autobiography, Hume notes that in 1775 he was "overwhelmed by a disorder in his own intestines" and was "deadly enough to be incurable." I want to die now."
What is striking is Hume's calmness in the face of death and his satisfaction in accepting fate. In Adam Smith's correspondence with Hume's personal physician, a recurring word is "delight." Smith mentions that Hume was happily reading Ryuzen's Dialogues of the Dead a few days before his death. Thus Hume, the atheist, was happily confronted with death without the slightest sorrow. Thus, Smith said:
"Whether he was alive or behind, I always understood him in this way, and perhaps only by accepting the weak nature of human will I get closer and closer to the wise and virtuous."
Diderot
Diderot, French thinker and philosopher
Diderot's last words before his death were addressed to his daughter, Madame Angelico de Vendres:
"The first step to philosophy is doubt."
Although there are still some doubts about the fact of Diderot's death, such as the exact date and place of death, and whether a priest has ever been there, his daughter's testimony is very moving.
He died with dignity. His protector, Empress Catherine of Russia, invited him to St. Petersburg, and at the end of the exhausting trip, Diderot fell ill, bedridden, and intended not to speak again. His condition improved briefly, and he was able to stay at the dinner table with his wife. He drank soup, ate boiled lamb and chicory, and then tasted an apricot (strawberry in some places). Angelique can describe it as follows:
"Mom wanted to stop him and not let him eat the fruit. But he said, "Do you think I'm going to die if I eat something like this?" He ate the apricots, then ate a plate of cherries on the table with his elbows propped up and coughed softly. Mom asked him, but he didn't say anything back. Looking up, he was dead. ”
Bentham
Bentham, British philosopher and economist
At University College London on Gower Street, in the northern cloister at the southern end of its main building, the body of Jeremy Bentham is placed here, sitting straight in a wooden cabinet with glass windows that resemble an old telephone booth.
In "Self-Idolization, or the Continued Use of the Dead by the Living," Bentham prepares detailed instructions for the treatment of posthumous remains and the display of the remains. If religious rituals treated the statue as a pious object, bentham's "self-idol" embodied an anti-religious spirit of ridicule. This "self-idol" is atheist who preserves his appearance for the small benefit of future generations. Bentham mentions that his intention to make a "self-idol" is:
"Hopefully, humanity can benefit a little from my death, and so far I have rarely had the opportunity to contribute while I am alive."
In itself, Bentham's body is a posthumous rebellion against the religious taboo of death, a concrete embodiment of the founding spirit of University College London. Founded in 1828, the college was the first institution of higher learning in Britain to be freed from the confinement of the state religion.
Heine
Heine, German poet
Heine's writing and wisdom were closer to Diderot or Laurence Sternne than his fellow Germans of his time. He once said, "If you ask a fish swimming in the water how it feels, it will answer like this: 'It's like Heine in Paris.'" And he died there, probably from syphilis.
His dying words were:
"God will forgive me, it's His duty."
Husserl
Husserl, German philosopher
Despite embracing Lutheran Protestantism in his youth, Husserl's Jewish ancestry led to his expulsion from the University of Freiburg after Hitler came to power in 1933. Husserl's former student Heidegger took over Husserl's chair in philosophy at the university. Heidegger even forbade his former mentor to enter the library.
Between 1935 and 1936, as darkness spread across the continent, the elderly Husserl traveled to Vienna and Prague to give lectures, which eventually went to his last unfinished book, Crisis and A priori Phenomenology of European Science. In Husserl's view, philosophy is the absolution of absolute self-responsibility, and philosophers are "civil servants of mankind." The duty of the philosopher, he concluded, is to confront "the savage hatred of the soul" and to revive philosophy with "rational heroism." In these crisis times, the greatest danger facing the "good Europeans" is burnout, the refusal to take on the philosophical struggle to use reason against barbarism.
According to his former assistant and faithful disciple Ludwig Landgrebe, Husserl's only wish when he was tormented by the disease that finally took his life was to die like a philosopher. Husserl rejected the church's advice to mediate, saying:
"I have come into this world like a philosopher, and now I wish I could leave like a philosopher."
Sartre
Sartre, French philosopher and writer
In the years leading up to his death, Sartre said:
"Death? I never thought about it. There is no place for death in my life, it is always excluded. One day, my life will end, but I don't want my life to suffer from death. I hope that my death will never come into my life, not to limit my life, and I always want to be the master of life. ”
Blind, toothless, almost incapacitated; alcoholism, smoking, and drugs corroded his body and destroyed his health, Sartre's last year of life was unbearable to look at. But he seemed to have an incredible ability—more real than lust—to have a group of beautiful and weak women around him, who were financially dependent on him. Simone de Beauvoir, whom Sartre always called "Beaver", remained loyal and enthusiastic to him throughout his life. He gave medical first aid several times in the last decade of his life, and on the last time, Sartre returned to the light and asked Beauvoir worriedly, "What are we going to do with the cost of the funeral?" Before taking a breath, Sartre closed his eyes, shook Beauvoir's wrist and said:
"I love you very much, my dear beaver."
Although atheism was the way to understand his life and philosophy, in a 1974 interview with Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre said something puzzling:
"I don't feel like a product of chance, much less a speck of dust in the universe, but a planned, prepared, hopeful creature. Simply put, it is a being that only the Creator can create; the idea of this hand of creation refers to God. ”
Baudrillard
Baudrillard, French philosopher and sociologist
As a tribute to the transition to Professor Emile Durkheim, one of the founders of the sociology profession, Baudrillard writes:
"Philosophy leads to death, sociology leads to suicide."
His last book, Cold Memories 5, mentions that when diagnosed with the cancer that ultimately killed him, Baudrillard said he never imagined death. It was the best attitude for him, because it meant that death was still a startling thing, a fortuitous thing, full of magic, a strange opponent in a duel with life. He brilliantly wrote:
"Death arranges things well, because it is the fact of your absence that makes the world clearly less worth living in.