What are you afraid of- cockroaches, public speaking, snakes, and calculus?
And what about death- what do feel about it? Our feeling about death is mostly shaped by our beliefs and our concept of afterlife. And if there is an afterlife then how will that afterlife be. The ancient Egyptians believed that once you die your heart will be weighed in a scale with a feather on the other side. A heavy heart with misdeeds was to be the food of demons and a light heart with good deeds would to heaven. Christians have a belief that Saint Peter is waiting in the heaven’s gate to welcome you- of course only if your name is in the list. So you can very well imagine that unless you make it to the list which gives you entry to the coolest pub, you will get banished to an eternity of turmoil in hell. There is no middle ground. Islam says that in heaven you will get 72 virgins, a good motivation for men but what about the women. Hindus believe that at the gates of heaven the book keeper will tell you about your deeds on earth and then give its verdict. So every religion has formed its own concept of death.
When the stakes are so high that is going to affect you eternally then it is obvious that the nervousness will be more for this final exam of life. But many philosophers believe that death is not be feared. Socrates was sentenced to death for reasons ranging from not accepting the deity of Athens to brainwashing the youth and not rubbing the wrong end of nobility. But he was calm and unafraid even if he was facing his eminent death. He thought that there are only two possibilities on death- one, death is just a dreamless sleep which means enough time to rest- two, it could lead to the next life, which again is good as he could meet new people to hang out with. So both the cases seem to be a good option.
But if there is no afterlife and death is a dreamless sleep – a total annihilation of the self, would it be scary? Epicurus, the philosopher who lived after about 100 years later than Socrates thinks otherwise. He was a stoic philosopher and did not believe in afterlife. For him death is the end of all sensations and good and evil makes sense as a sensation only. That way death is neither good nor evil. And there is nothing to be scared about as you will not be there to experience any sensation. Fearing non existence gets in the way of enjoying life. You are alive and therefore enjoying the sensation, so it is up to you to make the most of those sensations. When you are gone you will not be there to miss them. You and death cannot be present at the same time.
Now fast forward to this century. Thomas Nagle thinks that we fear death because we will miss out a lot of experiences. If you died right now then you will not be finishing that game on play station or finish reading the book you started to read or see man landing on Mars. But see from this perspective- great things were happening all through the history even before you were born- you missed the invention of wheel, you missed the full beauty of Coliseum, you missed Lincoln, you missed the first Olympics. So if you are not missing those things that have gone by then you should not feel bad about missing the things that are going to come.
He says that if life is taken to be essentially a good thing then there is something to mourn when it is cut short by death. If someone dies at 25 then he is likely to miss 50 years of good time. If in your opinion life is inherently good then most likely you will have high value for the sanctity of life. But if it is quality of life that you value the most then just being alive may not be always good as in the previous case. In such cases death can actually be good as it brings an end to a terrible and painful life- like cases of Euthanasia.
Whereas Socrates and Epicurus may have convinced you that death is not to be feared, but what about death of your loved ones. Do you fear for their death because then you will be left alone without your loved ones. Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, a contemporary of Epicurus says that there is no reason to fear death when it is inevitable. When we celebrate every part of the milestones of life then why should we be afraid of the last milestone? He said that the death of our loved ones needs to be celebrated as he has completed the last milestone. We celebrate the birth of a child, the first walking, the entry into teens, the end of teens, going to college, getting out of college, job, marriage, the new born, the new house, the financial freedom of the forties, the retirement, he grand children – then why not celebrate death as the parting party for a grand new journey.
Nice article