Fear of Death
Fear of Death
This chapter examines one unnecessary fear that Epicurus believes is a main source of unhappiness: fear of death. According to Epicurus, if we focus on death and fear it, then we are led to be unhappy and cannot enjoy our lives. Death should be of no concern to the living or the dead, because those who are living are not dead and those who are dead don't exist. Epicurus also offers numerous practical insights about finding satisfaction in the human condition. Lucretius agrees, claiming that just as we are unconcerned whether we had lived at any time before we were born, so we should be equally unconcerned whether we live at any time after we die. Thomas Nagel contends that the option of a person's living earlier than the time of birth isn't possible, because a person born earlier wouldn't be the same person. Shelly Kagan replies that Nagel's claim is mistaken because a situation can be imagined in which a person born earlier would be the same person as the one born later.
Keywords: fear, Epicurus, unhappiness, death, living, dead, satisfaction, Lucretius, Thomas Nagel, Shelly Kagan
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