Epicurus's Thoughts on Death

747 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Epicurus' philosophy

Humankind’s greatest fear is death. According to Epicurus the soul is a material article. The soul is no less corporeal than any other part of the body, because it too, is part of the physical body itself. If one was to agree with Epicurus, they would stand to reason that when someone’s physical body dies the soul dies as well. Epicurus proposes that there are no grounds for people to fear death. He says that people fear and expect “some everlasting pain, as happens in myths. Or they fear the loss of sensation itself that comes with death, as if it were something that affected them directly. However, if the soul dies with the body, then there is no reason to fear death, because there will be no feelings any longer” (The Essential Epicurus 41). Extrapolating that thought further, if there is no soul left to prolong living, then there is no afterlife. Without something to continue existing, there is no essence of that object anywhere else either.
Epicurus considers anything of existence to be made up of atoms. He introduces his theory about the materiality of the soul as he characterizes it as “a body of fine particles dispersed throughout the entire organism...” (The Essential Epicurus 32). By describing the soul in this manner, he includes the soul in the cluster of the rest of the existing objects in the universe that are made up of atoms and particles. Since Epicurus discourses the soul this way he does not leave it to be speculated that the soul is on different grounds from other concrete objects.
It is redundant to fear death because, according to Epicurus, it has no affect on us. Once something is dead it loses feelings, emotions, and any state of being that it had before. When a person dies, both the body and soul die s...

... middle of paper ...

...er.
Epicurus also puts forward that humans are capable of living a higher quality life, to an immense extent, if the fear of death is diminished. By halting of the yearn for immortality, people can devote their attention to the life that they do have power over, and make that the best life possible for themselves.
Due to the circumstance that the soul does not exist without the presence of the body to reside in, the soul will die along with the body. Since Epicurus says that this is true, he also is able to conclude that there is also no afterlife. By abiding by Epicurus’ optimistic out-look on the present life, people can have a sense of liberation. They can begin to devote themselves to developing the best life possible, discharging any fears of an afterlife, and as an end result, reaching the ultimate goal of happiness, which Epicurus describes as ataraxia.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Epictetus T Grieve Over Death

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    First of all Epictetus argues that we shall not grieve over death because death is something we cannot control. If death is not something we control, then why do we implement services that honor the dead that are going to activate our uncontrollable emotions? We struggle with accommodating death because of the attention that death receives. Grieving is a natural emotion, the more the person is reminded of something the more emotional they will become. The more significant the loss the lengthier the grieving process lasts. Epictetus believes that our feelings are expressions of what seems right to us based upon our opinions and values. If we reevaluate our judgments or beliefs, then our feelings will be corrected as well. If we cannot control

    Read More

  • A Defense of Epicurius

    2550 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Stephen E. Rosenbaum's How To Be Dead And Not Care, By Thomas Nagel

    1726 Words  | 4 Pages

    Epicurus was a philosopher who was born in 341 BC and lasted until 270 BC. He examined the situation of death and came to the conclusion that once one is dead, no harm can be done, due to the fact that they no longer exist. Stephen E. Rosenbaum is a philosophy professor. Rosenbaum wrote the essay “How to Be Dead and Not care”, in which he explains Epicurus’ views and then defends Epicurus’ beliefs about death. The reason why he defends Epicurus, is because he’s being logical. Rosenbaum also believes that we spend too much time thinking about death, which is something we will never have to experience. However, Thomas Nagel who’s a philosophy and law professor, disagrees with both Epicurus and Rosenbaum. Nagel believes that one doesn’t have to experience

    Read More

  • Epicurus Death Argument Analysis

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Epicurus was admittedly a Hedonist, and this philosophy has had a huge influence on his work. Especially so on his death argument. Hedonism is, “the doctrine that pleasure is the only thing that is good in itself for a person, pain the only thing that is bad in itself for a person.”

    Read More

  • Fear Of Death In Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 sometimes 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

    Read More

  • Stoicism and Epicureanism

    2002 Words  | 5 Pages

    Epicurus, the founder of Epicureanism, saw death as a total extinction with no afterlife to ensue, he regarded the universe as infinite and eternal and as consisting only of space and atoms; where the soul or mind is constructed of indestructible parts that can never be destroyed. He sought to free humanity from the fear of death and of the gods, which he considered the main cause of unhappiness.

    Read More

  • Death and Immortality in The Epic of Gilgamesh

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    nsciousness after death, or maybe a combination of both, which creates this fear. The fear felt is undoubtedly universal. However, the ways in which it is dealt with are varied and diverse. The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. It is the society, which has the greatest impact on an individual’s beliefs.

    Read More

  • Socrates and Epicurus - Live Life Without Fear of Death

    2744 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Death in Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Socrates Arguments On Immortality

    1137 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates was a philosopher who was true to his word and his death was ultimately felt by his closest friends and followers. In Phaedo, Socrates is met with his closest friends during his final hours as they await his death. At this point Socrates is prepared for death and seems to welcome it. Although death may seem like a scary inevitable fate that we all must face at one point; Socrates saw death as a privilege mainly because he believed that the soul was immortal. As a result, Socrates provides arguments as to why he believed the soul was immortal and even though all his arguments lacked unconvincing evidence, he does bring up good points. In this paper I will talk about Socrates’ most and least convincing arguments on immortality, and explain what Socrates’ problem was with Anaxagoras.

    Read More

  • Epicurus's Philosophy on the Fear of Death

    1743 Words  | 4 Pages

    Death, and people's perception of it are a major part of many philosophies. It could be argued that the questions surrounding death and the afterlife form the basis of many philosophic concepts. To some philosophers, not only is the concept of death itself important, but also how people perceive it, and why they perceive it the way they do. Epicurus's claim that the soul is mortal, is an excellent explanation for why we should not fear death.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Denial Of Death By Ernest Becker

    1544 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Mortality in Hamlet by William Shakespeare

    2189 Words  | 5 Pages

    Intro : Introduce the concept of death, and how the concept of death is shown to be something to be feared

    Read More

  • Martin Heidegger Being And Time Analysis

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • The Soul According to Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    The soul can be defined as a perennial enigma that one may never understand. But many people rose to the challenge of effectively explaining just what the soul is about, along with outlining its desires. Three of these people are Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine. Even though all three had distinctive views, the similarities between their views are strikingly vivid. The soul indeed is an enigma to mankind and the only rational explanation of its being is yet to come and may never arrive.

    Read More

More about Epicurus's Thoughts on Death

Open Document