The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

by Eric Weiner

(Nothing keeps decrepitude at bay like a healthy and vigorous hatred.)

“A blazing, fearless passion in an old man’s frail body is a moving sight,” says Beauvoir.

Unfinished business isn’t a sign of failure. The opposite. The person who departs this world with no unfinished business hasn’t lived fully.

Death is philosophy’s true test. If philosophy can’t help us deal with life’s most momentous and terrifying event, what good is it? As Montaigne puts it: “All the wisdom and reasoning in the world boils down finally to this point: to teach us not to be afraid to die.”

I’m not sure I want death to be a part of my life, great or otherwise. How, I wonder, can I come to terms with death while keeping it at a safe distance? You can’t, says Montaigne. You must, if not befriend death, then at least defang it. You think of death as the enemy, something out there. Wrong. “Death is the condition of your creation. It is a part of you. You are fleeing from your own selves.” We must reorient ourselves toward death. It is not an “it” and you are not its victim.

There is no such thing as an impersonal insight. Borrowed truths fit about as well as borrowed underwear, and are just as icky. You either know something in your heart or you don’t know it at all.