Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius, have both similar and different views on the role that death plays in life and philosophy. They both believe our fear is due in some part to the uncertainty that surrounds the process of death. However, both philosophers have dissimilar approaches on why we shouldn’t fear the unknown concept of death. Drawing from these reasons and explanations, they arrive at the way this fear affects our lives and what we should do to change it.
Both Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius think we fear death because of some different, yet also similar factors. Lucretius believes religion is the biggest problem why one fears death. We as humans believe that somehow the soul survives death, so when we further think about death, we consider that we will still be existing, but not living. These ideas lead us to the fears of what punishments we may face in the next life, and we are afraid of all the things we will miss once we are no longer here. Marcus Aurelius similarly believes that we fear death because we are not clear on what will happen to us after it. We are not certain if the gods exist, so we can never know what they are like. Moreover, we fear death ultimately because it remains something that we have absolutely no
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To begin, bad and good things are just as likely to happen to a good person as they are to a bad person. Second, everyone has an equal chance of success in all of the things that matter, and finally, only things we do with our own effort determine our success and failure in life. “How to understand your own good: … the intelligent man sees it in his own actions.” (Aurelius, 6.51) We derive comfort from these statements by knowing that the universe is not out to “get” us. It is neither unfair nor fair, it is A-fair, everyone is in the same boat, and death is just as likely to happen to you as anyone
As a natural phenomena that occurs frequently yet is still not completely understood, death has confounded and, to a certain degree, fascinated all of humanity. Since the dawn of our species, people have tried rationalize death by means of creating various religions and even attempted to conquer death, leading to great works of literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Cannibal Spell For King Unis.
Is it possible to live without fear of death? If you can, does it change your life and who you are as a whole? Lindqvist believes so. Early in the book he proposes the idea that with fear of death life has a deeper meaning. That only with the fear of death do...
There have been many attempts at formulating a theory that accounts for our intuitions regarding the harm of death. Most theories attempt to account for this intuition by attributing the harm of death to a deprivation of some sort. That is a person is harmed when she dies because she is deprived of some good thing. This paper is a defense of Epicurius's argument regarding death as a response to deprivation theories.
Death is an eternal mystery and the most controversial subject stemming from human inexperience. Its inescapability and uncertainty can give insights on the core principles and vulnerability of human nature. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet he skilfully makes use of death as a lashing force to explore the depths of his characters along the way illustrating man’s continual dilemma “To be or not to be”?
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 showing we even exist after death.
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.
Socrates believes one cannot fear what one does not know. He believes since no one has an absolute knowledge of what follows death in the natural world, man should not fear death. He has several arguments to back this up. In this paper I will look at two of his arguments and conclude that his arguments are unsound due to the fact that opinions are not truths.
What is more honorable, selflessness or mercy? In the Franklin’s tale, the Franklin poses this question as he compares the behaviors of Arveragus to Aurelius in his tale. Both men behave in respectable manners, but the intention of their acts separates them. The selflessness of Arveragus outweighs the mercy of Aurelius because Arveragus’s motivation is love, whereas Aurelius’s motivation is pity.
Thomas Nagel begins his collection of essays with a most intriguing discussion about death. Death being one of the most obviously important subjects of contemplation, Nagel takes an interesting approach as he tries to define the truth as to whether death is, or is not, a harm for that individual. Nagel does a brilliant job in attacking this issue from all sides and viewpoints, and it only makes sense that he does it this way in order to make his own observations more credible.
“Bernard Williams is a distinguished twentieth-century english moral philosopher” (Jacobsen, p. 104). His perception of death and desire varies greatly from Lucretius who was a Roman follower of the ancient atomism and defended the views of Epicurus who like Lucretius, declared that death is a bad thing for people. On the contrary, Williams asserts that death gives meaning to life and that immorality might not be such a good thing and rather he believes that it is to be undesirable. The reasons as to why Williams thinks that a person’s death is a bad thing is due to the fact that when a person dies they are no longer able to fulfill/satisfy the desires we had when we were alive.
Marcus knows that if the truth about how people die has more weight put on it than the supernatural side, there will be less fear underneath it. There is no reason to fear death when you understand it entirely and understand that it is all part of nature's plan. Marcus' philosophy of death is not complicated, but must be known to understand life. Marcus believes death to be molecules dissolving into the Earth on a physical plane. All people should understand this, and when they do, they will not fear death because they will understand the process.
According to Ernest Becker, “The main thesis of this book is that it explains: the idea of death, the fear of death that haunts humans like nothing else; the mainspring of human activity designed to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man” (“Becker” ix). The author of this book describes and quotes many other psychological thinkers views on the different kinds of fear and what contributes to the fear of death in man. The author explores several topics like self-worth, heroism, fear, anxiety, depression and many other issues throughout this book.
Intro : Introduce the concept of death, and how the concept of death is shown to be something to be feared
...ording to Heidegger, become fearful of the prospect of death. He argues the correct response to death in one’s life is a form of ‘brave anxiety’ (Heidegger, pge 310, 1978). There is a distinction between this anxiety and outright fear towards death, where fear is attached to some object, person or idea (in this case the prospect of death). Anxiety involves what Heidegger describes as an ‘impassioned freedom towards death’ (Heidegger, pge 310, 1978) due to the fact anxiety is concerned with human freedom or lack thereof regarding choices we cannot make. As pointed out earlier death is out of our control and therefore should be regarded with anxiety rather than outright fear of something we cannot control. Heidegger seeks to explain death in these ways because he wishes to explore how the anxiety of death is related to being, not due to some kind of morbid curiosity.
At first, the connection between philosophy and death is not clear. However, as we unravel