BillyJoe
4th December 2004, 11:01 PM
Below are some quotes from a review in E-Skeptic of the book "Facing Death: Epicurus and His Critics". The book suggests that Epicurus could provide a philosophy for atheists to overcome fear of death....
Death is nothing to us because the instant we cease to exist we experience nothing....
That “death is not to be feared”, asserts Epicurus, can be demonstrated by rational argument. “Death is nothing to us” because, at the moment we die, the instant we cease to exist, we experience nothing. “For something to be good or bad for some person, that something . . . must be perceived by that person.” Death is not perceived by the individual because the cessation of life marks the cessation of all sensation, including that of physical and mental pain. Death is merely the termination of a stream of consciousness. It is unreasonable, says Epicurus, for us to be fearful of a future event that will not harm us when it occurs. “What is no trouble when it arrives is an idle worry in anticipation,”
The fear of pain prior to death and the death of loved ones can be partly lifted.....
Epicurus grants that it is not irrational to fear the possibility of pain prior to death, or to the experience of losing a loved one. However, if we have a dying friend or family member who approaches death with an Epicurean perspective, some of the pain of our own grief may be lifted. Additionally, says Epicurus, the fact that “death is nothing to us,” does not prevent us from recollecting with fondness pleasant memories of our loved ones. In fact, looking back allows us to edit out past painful experiences by simply choosing not to recall them.
"Tranquility", not continued existence, is the criterion for a life well lived.....
Of course, our anxieties about death reflect not just the fear of ceasing to exist, but also the awareness of having something precious taken away from us, of being eternally deprived of an existence that would have continued to yield pleasure. Epicurus’ response to this challenge is that ataraxia (the Hellenistic term for tranquility or imperturbability), not duration, is the criterion of a life well lived. Once ataraxia has been achieved, happiness cannot be augmented, either by more accomplishments or by a longer life.
Seeing life as an unfolding story engenders the fear of death. Living in the present ameliorates this fear.....
This notion may be difficult to accept for those who see life as a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. According to this view, our lives have a “plot,” which must be played out in order to be complete. The fear of death significantly relies on this disposition to see one’s life as an unfolding story.
For Epicurus, this narrative structure (the way many people experience their being in time) is just an arbitrary conceptual construction. The important questions are not “What have I made of my life?” or “What will I make of my life?” but “How am I right now?” It is the present-shaping consequences of the past and our attitude to the future that matter, not the past and future as such. If I am experiencing ataraxia, I am a perfected Epicurean, and logging in more months or years, or attaining more goods or honors, is beside the point. From this perspective, death deprives me of nothing and is nothing to be feared.
Is fear of death is "hard-wired" into our brains or can it be overcome?......
Perhaps the most effective argument potentially undermining the Epicurean perspective is that it is at odds with our visceral emotions....Logic may simply not be powerful enough to overcome the fear of death. Reason must compete with other intuitive, possibly innate, and unconscious sources of motivation. It is possible to claim that the fear of death is a crucial evolutionary product, ‘hard-wired,’ as it were, into our minds in order to allow us to survive.” Of course, if death is in fact bound up in the structure of our brains, we are stuck, and the Epicurean project is dead in the water. However, if it is possible to live a human life without fearing death then fearing death is not essential to being human. Only our own subjective and attentive response to Epicurus’ philosophy can answer the question of whether the fear of death can be overcome. Those of us who respond to Epicurus’ reasoning can say to him, “I agree with what you say about death, and you have persuaded me to laugh in its face.”
It may take time to overcome the negative impact of our cultural heritage and upbringing.....
If we recognize that our view of death is molded during childhood and reinforced over many years by the cultures into which we are born, we will see that it is a constructed concept subject to rebuilding. For the Epicurean, learning to think about death correctly is an integral part of living a good life. Expecting Epicurus to convert us overnight to his “death is nothing to us” perspective may be asking too much, but his project is a worthy one. His reasoning....is sound, and his philosophy, if understood and applied, is literally life changing. Epicureanism does have the potential to emancipate us from the fear of death. Thus freed, we see life in a new light.
I don't fear death but perhaps this book might tell me why.
Has anyone read the book and is it worth reading?
Does anyone have any opinions
(I only really want to know about the book but the opinions will come anyway so what the heck)
BillyJoe
Death is nothing to us because the instant we cease to exist we experience nothing....
That “death is not to be feared”, asserts Epicurus, can be demonstrated by rational argument. “Death is nothing to us” because, at the moment we die, the instant we cease to exist, we experience nothing. “For something to be good or bad for some person, that something . . . must be perceived by that person.” Death is not perceived by the individual because the cessation of life marks the cessation of all sensation, including that of physical and mental pain. Death is merely the termination of a stream of consciousness. It is unreasonable, says Epicurus, for us to be fearful of a future event that will not harm us when it occurs. “What is no trouble when it arrives is an idle worry in anticipation,”
The fear of pain prior to death and the death of loved ones can be partly lifted.....
Epicurus grants that it is not irrational to fear the possibility of pain prior to death, or to the experience of losing a loved one. However, if we have a dying friend or family member who approaches death with an Epicurean perspective, some of the pain of our own grief may be lifted. Additionally, says Epicurus, the fact that “death is nothing to us,” does not prevent us from recollecting with fondness pleasant memories of our loved ones. In fact, looking back allows us to edit out past painful experiences by simply choosing not to recall them.
"Tranquility", not continued existence, is the criterion for a life well lived.....
Of course, our anxieties about death reflect not just the fear of ceasing to exist, but also the awareness of having something precious taken away from us, of being eternally deprived of an existence that would have continued to yield pleasure. Epicurus’ response to this challenge is that ataraxia (the Hellenistic term for tranquility or imperturbability), not duration, is the criterion of a life well lived. Once ataraxia has been achieved, happiness cannot be augmented, either by more accomplishments or by a longer life.
Seeing life as an unfolding story engenders the fear of death. Living in the present ameliorates this fear.....
This notion may be difficult to accept for those who see life as a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. According to this view, our lives have a “plot,” which must be played out in order to be complete. The fear of death significantly relies on this disposition to see one’s life as an unfolding story.
For Epicurus, this narrative structure (the way many people experience their being in time) is just an arbitrary conceptual construction. The important questions are not “What have I made of my life?” or “What will I make of my life?” but “How am I right now?” It is the present-shaping consequences of the past and our attitude to the future that matter, not the past and future as such. If I am experiencing ataraxia, I am a perfected Epicurean, and logging in more months or years, or attaining more goods or honors, is beside the point. From this perspective, death deprives me of nothing and is nothing to be feared.
Is fear of death is "hard-wired" into our brains or can it be overcome?......
Perhaps the most effective argument potentially undermining the Epicurean perspective is that it is at odds with our visceral emotions....Logic may simply not be powerful enough to overcome the fear of death. Reason must compete with other intuitive, possibly innate, and unconscious sources of motivation. It is possible to claim that the fear of death is a crucial evolutionary product, ‘hard-wired,’ as it were, into our minds in order to allow us to survive.” Of course, if death is in fact bound up in the structure of our brains, we are stuck, and the Epicurean project is dead in the water. However, if it is possible to live a human life without fearing death then fearing death is not essential to being human. Only our own subjective and attentive response to Epicurus’ philosophy can answer the question of whether the fear of death can be overcome. Those of us who respond to Epicurus’ reasoning can say to him, “I agree with what you say about death, and you have persuaded me to laugh in its face.”
It may take time to overcome the negative impact of our cultural heritage and upbringing.....
If we recognize that our view of death is molded during childhood and reinforced over many years by the cultures into which we are born, we will see that it is a constructed concept subject to rebuilding. For the Epicurean, learning to think about death correctly is an integral part of living a good life. Expecting Epicurus to convert us overnight to his “death is nothing to us” perspective may be asking too much, but his project is a worthy one. His reasoning....is sound, and his philosophy, if understood and applied, is literally life changing. Epicureanism does have the potential to emancipate us from the fear of death. Thus freed, we see life in a new light.
I don't fear death but perhaps this book might tell me why.
Has anyone read the book and is it worth reading?
Does anyone have any opinions
(I only really want to know about the book but the opinions will come anyway so what the heck)
BillyJoe