Category Archives: Authors and Sources
PETER Y. WINDT
(1938 – )
What Counts as Suicide? It’s Not So Easy to Say
Peter Y. Windt, formerly associate professor of philosophy at the University of Utah and former chairman of the department, has worked on many problems in bioethics, especially the ethics of (re)designing human nature; philosophical method and problems of informal … Continue reading
DANIEL CALLAHAN
(1930– )
from Reason, Self-determination, and Physician-Assisted Suicide
Educated at Yale, Georgetown, and Harvard, Daniel Callahan was a cofounder of The Hastings Center, the first institute for bioethics, in 1969, and served as its president from 1969–1996. Callahan’s interests in bioethics range from the beginning to the … Continue reading
THICH NHAT HANH
(1926- )
from Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire: In Search of the Enemy of Man
Thich Nhat Hanh, a scholar in the field of philosophy of religion and an internationally revered figure of Zen Buddhism, was born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo in Vietnam in 1926. (The word “Thich” [pronounced tick] is not a title, but … Continue reading
Filed under Asia, Buddhism, Hanh, Thich Nhat, Selections, The Modern Era
MURTAZA MUTAHHARI
(1920-1979)
The Martyr: On Jihad, Suicide, and Martyrdom
Ayatollah Murtaza Mutahhari (also spelled Morteza Motahhari or Motah-hary), a traditional Shi’ite mujtahid and scholar influential in the Islamic Revolution of Iran (1978–79), was born in a small town in the province of Khorasan, Iran, and studied at the … Continue reading
Filed under Islam, Middle East, Mutahhari, Murtaza, Selections, The Modern Era
JAPANESE NAVAL SPECIAL ATTACK FORCE (KAMIKAZE CORPS)
(b. 1920s, d. 1944-1945)
Kamikaze Diaries
Last Letters Home
In October 1944, toward the end of World War II, as it was becoming clear to the Japanese command that American aircraft carriers massing at the mouth of Leyte Gulf represented a serious threat, the new commander of Japanese … Continue reading
ALBERT CAMUS
(1913–1960)
from The Myth of Sisyphus
from Notebooks 1935–1951
The central philosophical concern probed by Albert Camus, novelist, essayist, and playwright, was the problem of finding meaning and value in an absurd world, the basic human issue of the philosophical school known as Existentialism. Camus was born into … Continue reading
Filed under Camus, Albert, Europe, Existentialism, Selections, The Modern Era
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
(1906–1945)
from Ethics: The Last Things and the Things Before the Last
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran theologian, was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), the son of a famous psychiatrist. From 1923 to 1927, Bonhoeffer studied theology at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen. He also studied under Reinhold … Continue reading
Filed under Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Christianity, Europe, Selections, Sin, The Modern Era
PAUL-LOUIS LANDSBERG
(1901-1944)
from The Moral Problem of Suicide
Paul-Louis (also known as Paul-Ludwig) Landsberg was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1901 to a prominent family. Landsberg became a professor of philosophy at the University of Bonn in 1928. He wrote several works on anthropology and German philosophy, … Continue reading
Filed under Christianity, Europe, Landsberg, Paul-Louis, Martyrdom, Selections, Sin, Stoicism, The Modern Era
SZMUL ZYGIELBOJM
(1895-1943)
Letter to the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
Szmul Zygielbojm was born in a village in what is now Poland, then part of the Russian empire. At the age of 10, he left school and began working in a factory. As a young man, he became involved … Continue reading
Filed under Europe, Judaism, Selections, The Modern Era, Zygielbojm, Szmul