Morir por las ideas

According to Costica Bradatan, philosophy should not be an academic routine, but an art of living, and every art of living involves an art of dying. In this pioneering book, the author reviews the circumstances of a gallery of characters (Socrates, Hypatia, Thomas More, Giordano Bruno and Jan Patocka) who died defending their ideas at a decisive moment. Some were judged and condemned for not accepting the rules of the established power. Others died squandered by the angry mob (Hipatia) or as a result of police interrogations (Patocka). Bradatan also reviews some thinkers (Montaigne, Heidegger, Simone Weil) who reflected on death and the human condition. On the other hand, dying for a philosophical idea is not the same as dying for a religious cause, which forces us to look at Christian martyrs and suicide bombers. In addition, the martyr is conditioned by his vocation and his death ends up being both a consequence of his ideas and a staging of his own posterity. Bradatan hints at the theatrical aspect throughout, and the final section of this essay is not wasted, for what lies behind the decision to defend one's ideas to the death? Is it bravery, honesty, brainwashing, madness, or just plain ambition?