Lucretius Banquet Argument

Lucretius introduces his argument with an explanation as to why death evokes such fear while at the same time assuring that he will eliminate those fears by disproving

Some of us come to term with the reality that everything in life is temporary, and that one day we will all die. But sometimes people face hard time facing the reality of death because is never easy to accept not breathing one day. Some people fear for a good reason because once someone dies there is no coming back and not knowing what happens in the afterlife makes dying even more painful. The sad thing about dying is that one never knows when they will die, which is why someone people hate thinking about dying because it makes them overthink when they will die. Everyone face the reality of death differently

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death by Irvin D. Yalcom is a raw and unfiltered look at one of the most difficult challenges everyone faces, death. He takes you through the real-life experiences of his patients, past and present, and shares his thoughts about death. The real-life examples have a way of grasping your attention and pulling you in. He assists his patients in recognizing the reality of death, but not fearing it. Yalcom suggests that people have varying degrees of death anxiety. For some, death is not even a thought, while for others it may consume their thoughts. He also suggests that our everyday anxieties may ultimately originate from our fear of death. He includes observations of approaches used by famous philosophers. While reading, you cannot help but to contemplate your own life and envision your death.

Socrates argues that if death is nothingness or an afterlife then there is nothing to fear. For it is like a eternal sleep.

The way I percieve death is that it is absoulute and no living thing can ever escape it. Nor should we be afraid of death it is simply a

What this means to me is that death is not only inevitable, but necessary according to Lucretius. The world needs a change such as death in order to continue. Lucretius makes it seem that because matter cannot be destroyed or created in order for there to be life there has to be death first. The lines "life's a gift to no man/ Only a loan to him/...In this way Nature holds before our eyes/ The mirror of our future death," means that death is all around us as a reminder of our own ephemeral nature. And once we have accepted that for ourselves we can be an example for the generations that follow. In a sense Lucretius strives to remove the negative connotation that death claims by asking the reader why wouldn't they want a "rest more free from

There are many other key points, but the second to last one I will include here is in my opinion one of the most important, and that is the idea that Lucretius includes about pleasure and pain. “The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain it is delusion” (p4 of 164, Chapter 8) He goes on to say that people are unhappy and limit their lives by trying so hard to get to heaven, and having a fear they won't, and having a fear of not going to heaven. Lucretius doesn’t believe in heaven or hell, and does believe we are all made of atoms and particles that when we die will simply disappear, so there is nothing to fear and death is nothing to fear. (Chapter 8) Additionally, Lucretius claims that it is that fear of not going to heaven and the fear that people aren’t doing what is necessary to get into heaven, that gives religious groups and leaders power.

In order to understand why we should not fear death, its important to analyze what it could be. There are only two conceivable possibilities; either we move on to some afterlife, or simply cease to exist (43 c). The former suggests that the conscious mind lives on after death. Most people hope for this possibility as it is not a true death, rather a continuation of life.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.

Death is an inevitable fate for all living beings. It’s an aspect of life that can be hard to deal with, and the ability to overcome the fear of this unavoidable event can be difficult when it comes to knowing the reality of your fate in an

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

When people ponder death they wonder about the unknown with trepidation. As a young man, William Cullen Bryant wrote the "Thanatopsis." His thoughts progress from the fear of death to the acceptance of the event. People should not fear death because everyone dies and becomes a part of nature.

In the Lucretius’ argument against taking death as a genuine evil, one can understand his his conclusion that death should not be feared because one was nonexistent as well before birth. His first premise introduces that one would not have feelings before our birth because we are nonexistent, so we would not have any fear after death as well because one will be nonexistent. Before birth we do not experience fear, so we should not experience fear before death as well. In Lucretius argument one can object his conclusion by involving loss and deprivation after death and further explaining how it is reasonable to experience fear before death. However, if one was to accept it, then one would have to question Fischer and Brueckner’s account about loss and deprivation and how it affects one’s feelings before death.

Death is undoubtedly frightening for many reasons: fear of the unknown, fear of punishment from the gods, fear of having not lived a full life, etc. In contrast, Epicurus believed that we should not fear death because, “death is nothing to us”. He based his argument on the atomic theory developed by the pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus and argued that the universe is entirely composed of atoms. As a result, humans are composed of atoms that will eventually disperse back into the world. Since death does not affect the living and for one to experience pain one must be living, death is bad for neither the living nor the