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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
Goodbye Pixel | Aeon
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essay

Animals and humans

Goodbye Pixel

Although it felt more like bereavement for a person than the loss of a thing, the death of a pet isn’t exactly like either

Julian Baggini

The love and death of Yosef and Zilli | Aeon
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video

Ageing and death

When his elderly parents make a suicide pact, Doron struggles to accept their choice

19 minutes

Tengri | Aeon
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video

Rituals and celebrations

In a Mongolian wind burial, a body falls on land before getting swept up to the heavens

6 minutes

Departing gesture | Aeon
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video

Values and beliefs

A funeral director takes in bodies that social stigma leaves unclaimed

11 minutes

Thanadoula | Aeon
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video

Ageing and death

How an end-of-life doula found her vocation as a companion for the dying

7 minutes

Is grandad on the moon? | Aeon
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essay

Death

Is grandad on the moon?

We no longer have a clear sense of how to introduce our children to death. But their questions can help us face up to it

Pragya Agarwal

Final thoughts | Aeon
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essay

Meaning and the good life

Final thoughts

Do deathbed regrets give us a special insight into what really matters in life? There are good reasons to be sceptical

Neil Levy

EXCLUSIVEConor and Kobe | Aeon
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video

Mood and emotion

Grieving Kobe Bryant, Conor wonders: why do untimely celebrity deaths hit so hard?

6 minutes

Sooner or later we all face death. Will a sense of meaning help us? | Aeon
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idea

Meaning and the good life

Sooner or later we all face death. Will a sense of meaning help us?

Warren Ward

Marcus Aurelius helped me survive grief and rebuild my life | Aeon
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idea

Meaning and the good life

Marcus Aurelius helped me survive grief and rebuild my life

Jamie Lombardi

This mortal coil | Aeon
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essay

Death

This mortal coil

The fear of death drives many evils, from addiction to prejudice and war. Can it also be harnessed as a force for good?

Jeff Greenberg

It’s complicated – why some grief takes much longer to heal | Aeon
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idea

Psychiatry and psychotherapy

It’s complicated – why some grief takes much longer to heal

Marie Lundorff

Death by design | Aeon
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essay

Rituals and celebrations

Death by design

We can choose how we live – why not how we leave? A free society should allow dying to be more deliberate and imaginative

Daniel Callcut

Thinking about one’s birth is as uncanny as thinking of death | Aeon
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idea

Meaning and the good life

Thinking about one’s birth is as uncanny as thinking of death

Alison Stone

Crannog | Aeon
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video

Animals and humans

‘When it comes to the end, we all want the same things.’ Why animals need a good death

15 minutes

The river | Aeon
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video

Death

‘Where is it that we are?’ A poet conjures a journey along the waters of the afterlife

4 minutes

Someone else’s war | Aeon
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video

War and peace

What motivated three young Britons to join the deadly fight against ISIS in Syria?

29 minutes

The need for an ending | Aeon
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essay

Death

The need for an ending

When a person goes missing, in war or in ordinary life, their story is cut off mid-sentence. A death can be easier to bear

Andy Owen

Vultures of Tibet | Aeon
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video

Rituals and celebrations

To Tibetan Buddhists, sky burials are sacred. To tourists, they’re a morbid curiosity

21 minutes

Being 97 | Aeon
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video

Death

An ageing philosopher returns to the essential question: ‘What is the point of it all?’

18 minutes

The telling | Aeon
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essay

Childhood and adolescence

The telling

When a parent dies by suicide, how the children are told casts a permanent shadow on their understanding of life and loss

Jesse Bering

Economics helps explain why suicide is more common among Protestants | Aeon
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idea

Values and beliefs

Economics helps explain why suicide is more common among Protestants

Sascha O Becker & Ludger Woessmann

Death is no leveller if some live much longer than others | Aeon
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idea

Death

Death is no leveller if some live much longer than others

Keith Frankish

What the psychic saw | Aeon
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video

Family life

The psychic, the skeptic and the life-and-death prophecy that came true

5 minutes