Death is not Bad for Anyone
Epicurus writes, the argument that death is nothing to us, because when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death comes, we no longer exist. There are three reasonable previews to support his view, including: something is bad for someone as long as it must be bad for that person at specific time; Death cannot be bad for someone when they are dead because the person does not exist at that time; Death cannot be bad for someone before death actually come. Among these three reasonable previews, Epicurus draw his conclusion that because there is no time at which death is bad for someone, so death is not bad for anyone. I’m agree with that “Death is not bad for anyone”, because death can’t affect us since we are died. Although the objection is reasonable, I still think the Epicurus’s response is stronger. The objection is that death can be bad because it is a deprivation of the good things in life. Our life is full of good things. We have time that we stay with our parents or hang out with our friends; we have time that we do our hobby and go traveling to see the world; we have time that we go shopping and eat delicious foods; though there are still sometimes bad things happens, it emphasis happiness in our life and make our life colorful. However, if we died, we no longer have time to enjoy it. All the happy moments, money, gorgeous house, people we loves, things we have experienced and not experienced disappear since we are died. For
Chase’s behavior is typical for a student with autism because of his behavioral outburst and his difficulties in social situations. Chase had many idiosyncratic verbal behaviors where he would respond to certain stimuli with the same phrase or word every time it was presented. Certain words also acted as triggers that set him off into a fit of inappropriate behaviors. He associated the stimuli and trigger words with situations that he has either observed or lived through during his life. Chas did not always act appropriately in social situations, when Mr. M was talking about first meeting Chase he mentioned that Chase was unaware of the nervousness Mr. M and the other students felt on the first day.
Thomas Nagel’s article on death examined why he thinks death is considered a bad thing. He first considered that society would be indifferent to the death of people who are comatose for an extended period, versus those who immediately die. He also points out that few people are sad that they weren’t born prior to their birth. Essentially, anyone born significantly earlier than they were, would have been someone else. As a result, the time preceding to their birth does not prevent that individual from living. There is no expectation of life before we existed, but Nagel thinks death is a bad thing because that person could have potentially done more with their life.
As I read the reading “death”, I can conclude that the main idea for this reading that the author wants his readers to believe that the death is not something scary. We all should not be afraid about the fact that our bodies will cease to exist after death.
The first premise to the conclusion is that the worst part of death is the ultimate loss of future possible contributions to
What Lucretius’ claims boil down to is that it does not matter the length of life or when dying occurs, death is never bad.
In order to keep the world in line and in balance death has to occur. The world is one perfect place where everything is done for a reason as proposed in the line “Just as a target is not set up to be missed, in the same way nothing bad by nature happens in the world” (Hackett, 61). This is citing that the earth, as a whole is good, and that, in the grand scheme of things, nothing compares to the awesome power of the nature of our world. Another example of how perpetual our world is is the line “Remember that you are an actor in a play, which is as the playwright wants it to be,” which distinguishes us as being sort of like puppets (Hackett, 59). In this sense, unknown forces control us and these forces determine our life or our death. We have no control over this so there is no point in worrying about it. Ideas like this are not needed for survival and are merely just wants. As Epictetus says, “You are foolish if you want your children and your wife and your friends to live forever since you are wanting things to be up to you that are not up to you” (Hackett, 58). This is clearly pointing out exactly what we aren’t to do. Death is unknowable to us and we shouldn’t concern ourselves with what we cant
The definition of death is another issue paramount to this discussion. Robert Rakestraw, professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary in his article on this very subject
This should not be a justification for fear of death. Instead of worrying about death, they could go out and do what they want to do and then deal with death whenever it comes to them. This objection also does not change the fact that we do not know what death is. Socrates claimed that death could be something where the “person has no awareness at all; or else, as we are told, the soul goes under some transformation” (Apology 40c & 40d). We do not know whether or not we can still fulfill our hopes and dreams after death. Perhaps, even greater goals can await us. We also do not know when we are going to die unless we inflict it upon ourselves, have terminal illnesses, or been given death penalties. Even in the situations when we know we are going to die we should not fear death because it could possibly be a reward. Therefore, it is still irrational to fear death. If we fear death at a young age, we might be putting ourselves in danger in terms of ending up constantly being worried about it. Then, before we realize it our lives are
Not everybody has the same beliefs about certain things. The world is a big place with billions of people and a lot of them have their own beliefs. One belief about death is the way Buddhism people see it and their belief is reincarnation. Today, Buddhism is found in Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and China and in India, Sri Lanka Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, Cambodia, also in the European countries and the USA. It is believed that the Buddhist population of the world is over five hundred million. Five hundred million people believe that if you die it is not the end of your life but the beginning of a new one. Your new life would be reborn in one of six realms which are: heaven, human beings, Asura, hungry ghost, animal and hell. This all depends on the karma of your life; the better your karma is, the better your reincarnation would be, and that is called the
What argument does he provide for why we should not fear death? What is the ethical purpose of this argument for how we should live our lives? Do you agree with Epicurus’s views? Why or why not?
Death is the most inevitable and unknown aspect of life. It is unescapable, and by most of today’s population, it is feared in the utmost regard. Our materialistic views and constant desertion of religious ideals has forced our society to view death as an ultimate end. Socrates and St. Augustine’s views on death differ from many views on the subject in 2017, however, for their time, these men had the power to influence a plethora of individuals with their theories. For Socrates, death should never be feared and should be considered a blessing if our souls were to ascend to heaven, or death could be an extensive slumber without any dreaming whatsoever. With
Many people seem to fear death, but philosophers such as Socrates and Epicurus would argue that one has no reason to fear it. Socrates sees death as a blessing to be wished for if death is either nothingness or a relocation of the soul, whereas Epicurus argues that one shouldn't worry themselves about death since, once we are gone, death is annihilation which is neither good nor bad. Epicurus believes that death itself is a total lack of perception, wherein there is no pleasure or pain. I agree with Epicurus because Socrates doesn't give a sound argument for death as a blessing, whereas Epicurus' argument is cogent. I would also argue personally that death is not something to be feared because, like Epicurus, I see no sufficient evidence
Therefore, no one knows whether death is good or bad, fearing death is claiming to know death is bad, and this is ignorance. A person that fear of death, not because of the person feel the pain from death, but think of death is very painful, and this is nonsense. This is something no one ought to do, people should not fear death. However, with regards to death, we do it again and again. There is a belief that death is bad, yet people have no knowledge of death itself, and even the life that comes after death.
“Metaphorically, death is the portal between the land of the living and the land of the dead the bridge over the Styx” (Benatar, 177). Death may not be part of a person’s lifetime but it can constitute a small part of that. Unlike dying, the death’s time is uncertain. “It is not clear that it takes time, or if so, how much time it takes” (Benatar, 177). Being dead is a process that cannot be experienced. It also comes after death. Rosenbaum states that knowing these concepts helps us understand Epicurus’s argument and it helps us notice the “ambiguous use of the term death which embody rhetorically, but not logically, persuasive ways of insinuating the falsity of Epicurus’s view” (Benatar, 177).
With that being said, however, religion has offered an alternative answer, one which most definitely appeals to many humans; and more importantly gives humans a way out of death. Before moving forward it maybe important to clarify the term death and what its meaning is for the purposes of this essay. Obviously not even religion can save an individual from dying, humans are biological beings, thus time is never on