Single Idea 3265

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / e. Death]

Full Idea

We do not regard the period before we were born in the same way that we regard the prospect of death.

Gist of Idea

We don't worry about the time before we were born the way we worry about death

Source

Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], XI.3)

Book Reference

Nagel,Thomas: 'The View from Nowhere' [OUP 1989], p.228


A Reaction

This is a challenge to Epicurus, who said death is no worse than pre-birth. This idea may be true of the situation immediately post-death, but a thousand years from now it is hard to distinguish them.