Why should you care about philosophy and death?

You are invited to join us for an afternoon contemplating your own mortality

I wanted to write a personal invitation for those of you who haven’t already to register for our forthcoming virtual conference. Come and join us on Sat 18th Nov to contemplate mortality at: The Art of Dying: Philosophy and Death. We organize a lot of events through

The Plato's Academy Centre

— about four or five per year, now with approx a thousand attendees at each event! — but this was one that I was personally really interested in making happen. I think our relationship with our own mortality has to lie at the centre of any truly profound philosophy of life. It’s one of the major themes of Stoicism and, indeed, of ancient philosophy in general.

Please come along and join us. It’s completely free of charge, as always. (Donations are gratefully received as they help us to continue our work, providing you and others with these events, etc.) Please don’t worry if you’re in another time zone, or can’t make it — most of our attendees watch the playback of the event. Videos will be available to everyone who registers in advance.

I’m going to say a bit more below about the event but first I wanted to mention that as Plato’s Academy Centre grows, we wanted to ensure that we were giving something back to Greece. So we have now partnered with another nonprofit called The Hellenic Initiative, in order to donate a portion of our revenue to support their work in providing crisis relief and also promoting young entrepreneurs throughout Greece. Greece has suffered in recent decades due to economic difficulties and recent floods and wildfires. We love Greek philosophy and wanted to give something back and we’re pleased, although it’s a small initial step, to now be able to do so with your help.

My wife, Kasey, is now on maternity leave, because she’s due to give birth in a matter of days. She’s done a fantastic job in organizing this event. Kasey has been working closely with a number of major publishers on this and other events, and has arranged many benefits for friends of

The Plato's Academy Centre

, including the opportunity for anyone who registers in advance for Philosophy and Death to win a copy either of Tim Freke’s Soul Story or Michael Fontaine’s How to Grieve — books by two of the speakers from the event.

I’ve been working for a few years on a major research proposal (it’s a bit hush-hush at the moment) on the psychology of death contemplation. So I’m also fascinated to hear what our speakers have to say, which might be of benefit in helping people through these methods, as we believe there may be significant, measurable, psychological benefits to these sort of practices. I hope to be able to update you all soon with more information on that front!

Who are the speakers?

• “Cicero on Grieving the Death of a Child”, Michael Fontaine, author of How to Grieve: An Ancient Guide to the Lost Art of Consolation

• "Accepting death: The key to psychological equanimity", Dr. Rachel Menzies, author of Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society

• "Grief in Ancient Philosophy: Stoic Self-sufficiency or Aristotelian Interdependence?", Prof. Michael Cholbi, Executive Director of the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying and author of Grief: A Philosophical Guide

• "Seneca and the Shortness of Life", Tim LeBon, author of 365 Ways to Be More Stoic

• "Forays to Face Finitude: Stoic contemplation, communitas, & creative action", Dr. Kate Hammer, existential psychotherapist, author of Joyful Stoic Death Writing, and Kathryn Koromilas, creator of the 28 Days of Joyful Death Writing with the Stoics programme

• "Socrates: Fearless in the Face of Death", Dr. Scott Waltman, author of Socratic Questioning for Therapists and Counselors and The Stoicism Workbook

• "A Thousand Little Deaths: Lucretius on Death and Change", Shaun Stevenson Lecturer in Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University and author of forthcoming Positively Dead: Exploring Death in Deleuze

• "The Evolution of Immortality" , Timothy Freke, author of The Jesus Mysteries and Soul Story

I will be hosting with my good friend, Anya Leonard, the founder and director of the Classical Wisdom website.