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Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
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Death

A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal

6 minutes

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essay

Thinkers and theories

We’ll meet again

The intrepid logician Kurt Gödel believed in the afterlife. In four heartfelt letters to his mother he explained why

Alexander T Englert

A figure is silhouetted in an older style apartment block window at night. In the distance are taller modern tower block apartments
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essay

Cities

The haunting of modern China

In Nanjing, Hong Kong and other Chinese cities, rapid urbanisation is multiplying a fear of death and belief in ghosts

Andrew Kipnis

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video

Death

Even in modern secular societies, belief in an afterlife persists. Why?

9 minutes

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video

Meaning and the good life

The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor

16 minutes

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video

Death

Toby ponders the inner lives of the sheep that roam atop his parents’ graves

6 minutes

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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

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Ageing and death

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

19 minutes

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Rituals and celebrations

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

6 minutes

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Values and beliefs

A funeral director takes in bodies that social stigma leaves unclaimed

11 minutes

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Ageing and death

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

7 minutes

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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

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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

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Mood and emotion

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

6 minutes

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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

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idea

Meaning and the good life

Marcus Aurelius helped me survive grief and rebuild my life

Jamie Lombardi

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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

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Psychiatry and psychotherapy

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

Marie Lundorff

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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

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Meaning and the good life

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

Alison Stone

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Animals and humans

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

15 minutes

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Death

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

4 minutes

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War and peace

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

29 minutes

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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