Thomas Nagel Death Summary

Kate Miller said, “The question shouldn't be, is there life after death? But instead, Is there life before death? This quote is saying that not everyone or everything is alive before they die. People are not happy and therefore are not truly living their best life. This quote could also work for inanimate objects, with the possibility that the objects have a mind of their own. These are both true in the book, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Throughout the book, Guy Montag starts to discover what living is like, and what death truly is. In society today, life is something that everyone is afraid of losing while death is something people are afraid of. When in reality, these labels don’t matter at all. There are no labels to what is alive, and what is dead.

Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.

In the book Mortal Questions, Thomas Nagel explains the evilness and goodness of death. Thomas Nagel explains death, and whether it is evil or good, he ends the chapter by showing that if it were possible to live longer than the average human does, than death may be a tragedy. Nagel shows how being dead is bad for someone that was alive before being dead, however being nonexistent before someone was born is neither bad nor good because they were not deprived of something before their birth. He also shows why people wouldn’t pity those that are suspended in a non-animate state of being and eventually will come back in an animate state of being. In addition he shows why people pity others who have been reduced to lower state of consciousness. Moreover, he shows

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

First, the religious concept views death as the commencement of a new life (Campione, 2004). Next, the

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be certain, expect death and taxes”. (www.brainyquote.com). Death is something a lot of people are scared of, even though it a natural life cycle and it happens to everyone and everything. Everybody agrees death happens, but not everyone agrees what happens after death. Different people have different views of what happens after death, but one thing they all agree on is that it happens to everybody and there is no way around it, you don’t know when or where it’ll happen but it will always happen.

Death is viewed as a gate to meet God and live an eternal life with him. Whatever happens at death is always a mystery. In much religious death once everyone dies they will face judgment by God (Noebel,2006). Death is not the end of life; it is the beginning of eternal existence. Postmodernism has no moral absolutes but rather places responsibility into the hands of the

These ideals are very different from modern-day beliefs about death. Christian views about the afterlife include the two options for our souls after death: heaven- the happy, safe, and comfortable place where the good people go, and hell-the fiery, and dangerous place some go to if they made bad choices on Earth. Others believe in reincarnation, where a person’s soul lives on and takes the form of something else. Many people, no matter their religious stance, want to believe that there is something else after death, because it makes it easier when the time comes. It certainly eases some of the grief and anxiety that people face over death, and is far more comforting than the beliefs that ancient Mesopotamians held about death.

Thomas Nagel states that human beings have a “natural expression” for the sense that life is absurd (Nagel 29). In his essay, simply titled “The Absurd”, Nagel argues that this natural presumption is true, but not for the reasons commonly given: the smallness and brevity of our lives. Instead, our lives are absurd because they feature an inevitable conflict between our feeling that life lacks justification and our inability to disengage with life despite this feeling. I argue that Nagel mistakenly includes awareness in his philosophical definition of absurdity. Nonetheless, his essay is an insightful read about the nature of human life.

Some cultural believe that death is a rebirth of a new life and in some cultural they believe that death is the end, it is the final, nothing will happen after death. These differences in conceptions of death do have a great influence on everyone lifestyles including their willingness to accept death. There is no doubt that when it comes to

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.

The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far – reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).

The philosophical question being asked already introduces the finitude of human existence, since, according to Martin Heidegger human beings, as Da-sein, exist “as thrown being(s)-toward-its-end,”1 recognizing death is recognized as a possibility of Da-sein. However, it is important to define death in Heidegger’s context because he establishes the idea that death is a reality that we, as human beings, encounter as a possibility of being. As such, the relation between death and authentic existence must also be clarified, so as to fully understand what it truly means to be Da-sein.

It has been said that life can never be carried out and truly lived to its fullest unless there has been some sort of suffering and pain. Mistakes are to be learned from, and a hard past can only result in a stronger present. Though many might find themselves alone in their misery the truth is they are not, everyone has struggles. We all have our ups and downs, but it is how we react to them that truly matters. Life is life and no matter what, giving up on lifelong dreams and aspirations because of a few bumps in the road should never be an option.

Life is something that requires a considerable amount of physical and mental effort. Some are fortunate enough to have everything prepared for them. Such as some are born into money; some come across good fortune yet most work hard from the start to get some where in the world. It just all depends on how you were brought into this world. For some people, life is full of stress and hardships. That’s how life was for someone very dear to me. He had it difficult from the start. However he chose not to let life get him down. When life gave him lemons, he made lemonade.