Beyond Any Kind of God

by Jack Kevorkian

Almost lost to obscurity before now, Beyond Any Kind of God gives readers a glimpse into the philosophical views of the most controversial physician of our time. Written after his life-changing voyages abroad, Kevorkian’s only philosophical book provides a compelling study of the doctor’s early views on the meaning of life, solipsism, and death.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

85 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian was an American pathologist, right-to-die activist, painter, composer, and instrumentalist. He is best known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he said that he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said that "dying is not a crime".

Beginning in 1999, Kevorkian served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on condition that he would not offer suicide advice to any other person.

As an oil painter and a jazz musician, Kevorkian marketed limited quantities of his visual and musical artwork to the public.

Reviews

[InYourFaceNewYorker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was much deeper than his "Dr. Death" stereotype. Who knew that in the 1960s he wrote a philosophy book, and an interesting one at that? "Beyond Any Kind of God" is a very accessible read, and it explores issues such as life, death, perception and, especially, consciousness. Some of Kevorkian's assertions and data are a bit dated (again, this was written in the '60s) and some are a bit silly, but for the most part this work offers an interesting perspective of the world.

Note: "Beyond Any Kind of God" was heavily revised and incorporated into "GlimmerIQs."

Note 2: Disregard the "progress" notes. I don't have a kindle and I was reading this on and off on my computer. I found a program that converted the file to PDF so I could print it out and read it on the subway. When I finally did that, I started over on August 15th, 2012, and finished on August 16th, 2012.