The documented history of philosophy is often said to begin with the notable death of
Socrates. Since that time, there have been many other noteworthy deaths of philosophers.
458 BCE –
Zeno of Elea, according to Valerius Maximus, was tortured and killed by the tyrant Nearchus, after biting off the tyrant's ear.
435 BCE – According to legend,
Empedocles leapt to his death into the crater of
Etna.
420 BCE – According to some reports,
Protagoras died in a shipwreck.
399 BCE –
Socrates, condemned to death for corrupting the young, drank hemlock amongst his friends as described in Plato’s Phaedo.
348 BCE –
Plato either died while being serenaded by a Thracian flute-playing girl, at a wedding feast, or in his sleep.
338 BCE – According to legend,
Isocrates starved himself to death.
323 BCE – Accounts differ regarding the death of
Diogenes of Sinope. He is alleged to have died from eating raw octopus, from being bitten by a dog, and from holding his breath. He left instructions for his corpse to be left outside the city walls as a feast for the animals and birds.
320 BCE – Ancient sources state that Nicocreon the tyrant had
Anaxarchus pounded to death in a mortar with iron pestles; Anaxarchus is said to have made light of the punishment.
314 BCE –
Xenocrates died when he hit his head after tripping over a bronze pot.
1535 –
Thomas More was executed by beheading in 1535 after he had fallen out of favour with King Henry VIII.
1572 –
Girolamo Maggi was executed by strangulation on the orders of a prison captain in Constantinople; Maggi had been incarcerated after being arrested during the Turkish siege of Famagusta.
1572 –
Peter Ramus was killed in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
1619 –
Lucilio Vanini was also burnt by the Inquisition.
1626 –
Francis Bacon died of pneumonia, contracted while stuffing snow into a chicken as an experiment in refrigeration.
1640 –
Uriel da Costa, after being beaten and trampled by a religious group he had offended, went home and shot himself.
1650 –
René Descartes was killed by a cold acquired through his rising early to instruct Queen Christina of Sweden.
1677 –
Baruch Spinoza died of a pulmonary ailment, thought to be either tuberculosis or silicosis, brought on by inhaling glass dust while working as a lens grinder.
1928 –
Alexander Bogdanov died as a result of one of his experiments in blood transfusion.
1930 –
Frank P. Ramsey died after "contracting
jaundice" at the age of 26. (Jaundice by itself is not a cause of death but instead indicates hemolytic or hepatic disease.)
1931 –
Jacques Herbrand died in a mountaineering accident in the Alps at the age of 23.
1936 –
Moritz Schlick was murdered by an insane student.
1937 –
Gustav Shpet was executed after being accused of involvement in an anti-
Soviet organization.
1937 –
Pavel Florensky was shot dead after being sentenced by an extrajudicial NKVD troika to death.
1939 –
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz committed suicide by taking an overdose of
Veronal and trying to slit his wrists a day after the Soviet invasion of Poland; it was planned to be a joint suicide with a close friend of his but she survived the attempt.
1940 –
Walter Benjamin committed suicide at the Spanish-French border, after attempting to flee from the Nazis.
1940 –
Leon Trotsky was assassinated on Stalin's orders in Mexico, by Soviet agent
Ramón Mercader, along with most of his family.
1941 –
Henri Bergson died of pneumonia in occupied Paris, which he supposedly contracted after standing in a queue for several hours in order to register as a Jew.
1945 –
Gerhard Gentzen was detained in a prison camp by the Russian forces, where he died of malnutrition.
1945 –
Ernst Bergmann committed suicide after the Allied forces captured Leipzig.
1945 –
Johan Huizinga died in De Steeg in Gelderland, near Arnhem, where he was held in detention by the Nazis.
1945 –
Miki Kiyoshi died in prison; he had been imprisoned after helping a friend on the run from the authorities.
1948 –
Mohandas Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu zealot.
1951 –
Ludwig Wittgenstein died of cancer in Ireland, three days after his 62nd birthday. His last words: "Tell them I've had a wonderful life."
1954 –
Alan Turing ate a cyanide-poisoned apple. He was believed at the time to have committed suicide due to chemical depression, but his death was possibly just an accident.[12]
1960 –
Albert Camus died in an automobile accident.
The documented history of philosophy is often said to begin with the notable death of
Socrates. Since that time, there have been many other noteworthy deaths of philosophers.
458 BCE –
Zeno of Elea, according to Valerius Maximus, was tortured and killed by the tyrant Nearchus, after biting off the tyrant's ear.
435 BCE – According to legend,
Empedocles leapt to his death into the crater of
Etna.
420 BCE – According to some reports,
Protagoras died in a shipwreck.
399 BCE –
Socrates, condemned to death for corrupting the young, drank hemlock amongst his friends as described in Plato’s Phaedo.
348 BCE –
Plato either died while being serenaded by a Thracian flute-playing girl, at a wedding feast, or in his sleep.
338 BCE – According to legend,
Isocrates starved himself to death.
323 BCE – Accounts differ regarding the death of
Diogenes of Sinope. He is alleged to have died from eating raw octopus, from being bitten by a dog, and from holding his breath. He left instructions for his corpse to be left outside the city walls as a feast for the animals and birds.
320 BCE – Ancient sources state that Nicocreon the tyrant had
Anaxarchus pounded to death in a mortar with iron pestles; Anaxarchus is said to have made light of the punishment.
314 BCE –
Xenocrates died when he hit his head after tripping over a bronze pot.
1535 –
Thomas More was executed by beheading in 1535 after he had fallen out of favour with King Henry VIII.
1572 –
Girolamo Maggi was executed by strangulation on the orders of a prison captain in Constantinople; Maggi had been incarcerated after being arrested during the Turkish siege of Famagusta.
1572 –
Peter Ramus was killed in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
1619 –
Lucilio Vanini was also burnt by the Inquisition.
1626 –
Francis Bacon died of pneumonia, contracted while stuffing snow into a chicken as an experiment in refrigeration.
1640 –
Uriel da Costa, after being beaten and trampled by a religious group he had offended, went home and shot himself.
1650 –
René Descartes was killed by a cold acquired through his rising early to instruct Queen Christina of Sweden.
1677 –
Baruch Spinoza died of a pulmonary ailment, thought to be either tuberculosis or silicosis, brought on by inhaling glass dust while working as a lens grinder.
1928 –
Alexander Bogdanov died as a result of one of his experiments in blood transfusion.
1930 –
Frank P. Ramsey died after "contracting
jaundice" at the age of 26. (Jaundice by itself is not a cause of death but instead indicates hemolytic or hepatic disease.)
1931 –
Jacques Herbrand died in a mountaineering accident in the Alps at the age of 23.
1936 –
Moritz Schlick was murdered by an insane student.
1937 –
Gustav Shpet was executed after being accused of involvement in an anti-
Soviet organization.
1937 –
Pavel Florensky was shot dead after being sentenced by an extrajudicial NKVD troika to death.
1939 –
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz committed suicide by taking an overdose of
Veronal and trying to slit his wrists a day after the Soviet invasion of Poland; it was planned to be a joint suicide with a close friend of his but she survived the attempt.
1940 –
Walter Benjamin committed suicide at the Spanish-French border, after attempting to flee from the Nazis.
1940 –
Leon Trotsky was assassinated on Stalin's orders in Mexico, by Soviet agent
Ramón Mercader, along with most of his family.
1941 –
Henri Bergson died of pneumonia in occupied Paris, which he supposedly contracted after standing in a queue for several hours in order to register as a Jew.
1945 –
Gerhard Gentzen was detained in a prison camp by the Russian forces, where he died of malnutrition.
1945 –
Ernst Bergmann committed suicide after the Allied forces captured Leipzig.
1945 –
Johan Huizinga died in De Steeg in Gelderland, near Arnhem, where he was held in detention by the Nazis.
1945 –
Miki Kiyoshi died in prison; he had been imprisoned after helping a friend on the run from the authorities.
1948 –
Mohandas Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu zealot.
1951 –
Ludwig Wittgenstein died of cancer in Ireland, three days after his 62nd birthday. His last words: "Tell them I've had a wonderful life."
1954 –
Alan Turing ate a cyanide-poisoned apple. He was believed at the time to have committed suicide due to chemical depression, but his death was possibly just an accident.[12]
1960 –
Albert Camus died in an automobile accident.