Death Is Not Bad For Anyone

What Lucretius’ claims boil down to is that it does not matter the length of life or when dying occurs, death is never bad.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 first premise to the conclusion is that the worst part of death is the ultimate loss of future possible contributions to

Death is never an easy thing to deal with. When a loved one dies, people will naturally go through a system of mourning wherein they laud and appreciate the person who is now gone from their lives forever. There are times when deaths are more difficult to deal with, such as when a death is unexpected or when the deceased is a young person who should have had a long life ahead of them. Although death is never necessarily a happy event, there are occurrences where the passing away of a friend or loved one can be quantified as a good, if not pleasant event. According to the text, there are three conditions wherein a death can be considered a "good death." First, there is the medically-based good death. In this scenario, a person has been ill for a considerable length of time. Their illness is chronic, painful, and incurable. Thus, when that person finally passes away from that disease, their death is good because they are no longer in the position where they are suffering. The second type of good death is the sacred death wherein a person dies for some sort of religious purpose. In many ancient cultures, there were civilizations which used the practice of human sacrifice for a variety of reasons, including honoring the gods and ensuring a strong harvest of crops. Modern cultures do not usually include sacred deaths nor sacrificial deaths and often prosecute those who choose to participate in such events. Thirdly, a

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.

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.

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

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

“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).