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Single Idea 339

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

Full Idea

No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.

Gist of Idea

Men fear death as a great evil when it may be a great blessing

Source

Socrates (reports of last days [c.399 BCE]), quoted by Plato - The Apology 29a

Book Ref

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.27

A Reaction

As a neutral observer, I see little sign of it being a blessing, except as a relief from misery. It seem wrong to view such a natural thing as evil, but it is the thing most of us least desire.

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]