Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Heidegger and a Hippo Walk through those Pearly Gates

Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through those Pearly Gates : using philosophy (and jokes) to explore Life, Death, The Afterlife and everything in between by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein 2009

From the authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar comes yet another philosophical quest, or jest rather. With majors in philosophy from Harvard, the authors know their subject area, but their real skill lies in employing jokes, cartoons, and light-hearted dialogue to illuminate various thinkers’  (and some comics’) approach to the big, heavy question that confronts us all- our own mortality. 

Recognizing that “humour allows us to express our fears about death while defusing anxiety”, the authors succinctly deliver the in-a-nutshell version – from the Ancient Greeks to the 20^th Century  existentialists. An accompanying index  and notes round out the simple but profound offering.  For anyone who claims they can’t understand philosophy.