Fear Of Death Essay Why do people fear death? Death can be both a natural or a unnatural occurence that a majority of people cannot mentally grasp the acceptance. Necrophobia means fear of dying. About 68% of the United States population suffers from Necrophobia. (Fear/Phobia Statistics). Some people do not fear death, one of my scources states, “More than two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus constructed an argument against fearing death that has since become even more plausible: “Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” Epicurus was one of the first atomists who believed that everything consists of material entities and that there are no souls that survive death. If your life ends at death, then you have nothing to fear, because there will be no YOU to experience pleasure or pain. It’s all over when it’s over.” (Should You Fear Death). Is there more people in the world that fear death than people that don’t? In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale”, the fear of death was explained as an evil thing and not to be sought out. To the three rioters in the story view death as nonchalant and rather a nuisance than a fear, because in the story the three rioters go and seek death rather than avoid it. The main rioter says in the story, “In this affair, and each defend the others, And we will kill this traitor Death I say!” (Chaucer). Other characters in the story view death as a person
They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness. Greased they 'd say. Offed, lit up, zapped while zipping. It wasn 't cruelty, just stage presence. They were actors. When someone died, it wasn 't quite dying, because in a curious way, it seemed scripted, and because they had their lines mostly memorized, irony mixed with tragedy, and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself. "
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 unknown place that people tend to avoid because of the fear that surrounds it. But, there should be fear or anxiety that has built up because being in a strange place will definitely add anxiety and fear to a person. Ron Scranton confirms this idea by saying. “learning how to die isn’t easy… I was terrified by the idea”. From the time when he was in the army, he had no choice but to face the idea of death. What seems to scare individuals the most is the thought and process
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
However Socrates does not fear death. He figures that death could mean an afterlife that rewards those who are good- and since he feels he has been a good person, death would be welcoming. His other theory is that death equals non-existence, which most likely resembles a deep sleep. So both of these end results are not worthy of being feared.
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
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
The author of the play Everyman views death from the Catholic point of view. The moral message to live each day with the goal of eternal life in Heaven in mind sets the tone of the play. Everyman illustrates that every man’s soul needs to be saved before death or he will not have eternal life with God. The author views death as the foundation of man’s spiritual journey with God in Heaven or as the initiation of the soul’s damnation. The author portrays death as God’s messenger. The play underscores a message that the treatment of death is similar for every man, as he is held accountable for his actions and deeds in life upon facing death. Additionally, the only way to avoid death is to strive towards achieving ever-lasting life with God in
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.
The fear of death is meaningless in this concept. But what are we fearing in death? Is it the unimaginable or our life afterwards? Socrates does not seem to explain this; he simply summarizes that if you lead a life, such as seeking true wisdom, the idea of fear does not exist. What completely is death? He explains it as the separation of the soul and body, but is there actually more to that? For instance, what occurs to your body once you are liberated? How can the soul be called pure if it tainted within a body? Even though the body is simply a vessel, the actions of the individual and the knowledge they have is due to some of the information obtained from the body. The body is not completely evil; although it is distracting, the soul carries on the information of the body. So, in this sense, what does he mean by pure (pure from what- sin, distractions, false happiness). Socrates fails to take into account these type of questions and simply tries to state death as such: upon death, a person obtains an immortal and flawless soul and a person grows closer to the truth upon death.
Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometime cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death but the unknown that comes from death, that is the scariest thing about death.
This philosophy on death makes us think that we cannot ever imagine what we don 't know. It 's argumentative whether it 's unreasonable to "fear the unknown", as fear is a human driven emotion. It can 't really be compared to thinking one is wise when one isn 't, because its knowledge does not lead to immediate engagement. Socrates perhaps readily accepts his fear of death, yet he has not fully vanquished it.
The basis of fear of aging and death are partly due to how we view life. Everything about this life structure is based on a beginning and end. Nothing in this world will last forever except our souls, which we have an option of how and where we will spend eternity. However, getting back to the journey we call life, our bodies are constantly changing as are the times and seasons. I believe that the worldview of life has caused a great “fear” in
Both philosophers and non-philosophers stand on a level of equality with respect to death. There are no experts on death, for there is nothing to know about it. Even those who study the death process have no edge on the rest of us. We are all equals in thinking about death, and we all begin and end thinking about it from a position of ignorance. One trouble with discussing this topic is the instinctive fear of death. We tend to avoid death in our thoughts and actions. However, if we could forget our fears for a minute, we could see more clearly how interesting the concept actually is from a more detached point of view. One of the most interesting views on death comes from an ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates. In the texts that are going to be analyzed in this essay, Apology and Phaedo, are the retellings of words and thoughts of Socrates by Plato, a pupil and admirer of Socrates. Both texts lecture about the topic of death and though both are the thoughts of Socrates at different times of his life, they have similar and contrasting views on the outlook of death.
Death is a familiar thing to most of us, whether you’ve had a loved one pass or have seen a lot of pain. The reason I picked this topic is because of all the ways and things that can happen, in our lifetime, what is the most scariest thing people have trouble with and death popped into my head. I asked the question, ‘Are you afraid of dying?’ My belief was that the youth would be less likely to be fearful of dying compared to the older populations I interview and researched. I believed that the youth would see it as a long time away and would be more focused with living rather than focusing on something they can’t control. I believe that the elderly would have a bigger problem with death because of all the problems that come with old age. As you age everything becomes closer and is more realistic.