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Single Idea 14054

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

Full Idea

Death, the most frightening of bad things, is nothing to us; since when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist.

Gist of Idea

Fearing death is absurd, because we are not present when it occurs

Source

Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus [c.291 BCE], 125)

Book Ref

Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.29

A Reaction

This is a fairly accurate observation. To fear not being in this life is a bit like fearing not being in Vancouver next Tuesday. It also involves the paradox of the present moment. E.g. Idea 1904.

Related Idea

Idea 1904 Time must be unlimited, but past and present can't be non-existent, and can't be now, so time does not exist [Sext.Empiricus]

The 26 ideas with the same theme [significance of death for living people]:

6330 One with no use for life is wiser than one who values it [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
339 Men fear death as a great evil when it may be a great blessing [Socrates]
344 If death is like a night of dreamless sleep, such nights are very pleasant [Socrates]
5229 The more virtuous and happy a person is, the worse the prospect becomes of ending life [Aristotle]
14054 Fearing death is absurd, because we are not present when it occurs [Epicurus]
14053 It is absurd to fear the pain of death when you are not even facing it [Epicurus]
14055 The wisdom that produces a good life also produces a good death [Epicurus]
5726 The dead are no different from those who were never born [Lucretius]
13294 We know death, which is like before birth; ceasing to be and never beginning are the same [Seneca]
13299 Living is nothing wonderful; what matters is to die well [Seneca]
13300 It is as silly to lament ceasing to be as to lament not having lived in the remote past [Seneca]
23339 I will die as becomes a person returning what he does not own [Epictetus]
23345 Don't be frightened of pain or death; only be frightened of fearing them [Epictetus]
16764 The soul conserves the body, as we see by its dissolution when the soul leaves [Toletus]
7495 Apart from the fear, dying is an easy duty [Montaigne]
16763 We don't die because the soul departs; the soul departs because the organs cease functioning [Descartes]
19420 Death and generation are just transformations of an animal, augmented or diminished [Leibniz]
19346 Most people facing death would happily re-live a similar life, with just a bit of variety [Leibniz]
13173 Death is just the contraction of an animal [Leibniz]
4177 Most people would probably choose non-existence at the end of their life, rather than relive the whole thing [Schopenhauer]
14805 Is there any such thing as death among the lower organisms? [Peirce]
20268 Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche]
3265 We don't worry about the time before we were born the way we worry about death [Nagel]
4648 'Death' is best seen as irreversible loss of consciousness, since this is why we care about brain function [Glover]
6866 It is disturbing if we become unreal when we die, but if time is unreal, then we remain real after death [Le Poidevin]
9304 Death appears to be more frightening the less one has lived [Svendsen]