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Single Idea 5229
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / e. Death
]
Full Idea
The more completely a man possesses virtue, and the happier he is, the more he will be distressed at the thought of death, for to such a man life is supremely worth living.
Gist of Idea
The more virtuous and happy a person is, the worse the prospect becomes of ending life
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1117b11)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.135
A Reaction
Virtuous people are also, of course, brave. There is a horrible logic which says that you try to be less happy as death becomes more probable. Maybe happy people should pretend they are immortal.
The
27 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]
|
14053
|
It is absurd to fear the pain of death when you are not even facing it
[Epicurus]
|
14054
|
Fearing death is absurd, because we are not present when it occurs
[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]
|
24181
|
We need love to have a good death
[Weil]
|
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]
|