Argument: Why Fear Death?
Just for fun, here's a random thought I came up with:
Since life is often hard work, and by its nature inherently meaningless, why fear death? Because ceasing to be cannot be any scarier than the trials and tribulations of living.
(Accepting all viewpoints and counterarguments)
Since life is often hard work, and by its nature inherently meaningless, why fear death? Because ceasing to be cannot be any scarier than the trials and tribulations of living.
(Accepting all viewpoints and counterarguments)
Comments (52)
I agree with everything you just said, but I don't fear death. I fear dying.
Ok, just for fun. Hard work comes with rewards, you left that out of your equation. That omission skews the argument.
Why is life inherently meaningless? What fo you mean by that?
Ceasing to be can indeed be scarier than trials and tribulations sir, if one is more afraid of not being than they are of life's trials and tribs.
I don't have anything clever to say. The "just for fun" introduction makes me want to hurt you.
But that doesn't matter.
There is something you will eventually understand. It won't be because of a superior argument.
Whatever.
In my opinion everybody should be of a certain particular religion. lol.
#Shark_Fighter_Nation is the political party i belong too.
this includes sky diving, shark fighting, moving to chicago, moving to Iran, fighting a rattle snake with a pair of shears, fighting aligators, fighting bears.
I believe some people should avoid death all they can until much later in life.
On a separate note no one under any circumstance after doing any particular thing should ever commit suicide.
I don't believe having a death wish means a person has extra character neccesarily.
That’s the question nihilist face, since life is filled with suffering, why do many fear death. I personally think the reason why people fear death is because they fear the unknown. What happens after death? That’s the real issue. To overcome this fear, they submit themselves to religious beliefs which assure them life after death is more than it seems. A true world theory like what Nietzhe presents. Hence it’s not really death per se but the mystery surrounding it.
To add on to this, there’s the common phrase Momento Mori. The greeks don’t really fear death, instead they remind themselves of it. Supposedly, this is to remind themselves that they have one life to live and to live it to the fullest. This can somewhat go into the idea of regret which is something most people fear. They fear not being able to accomplish what they want in their life, hence they are afraid of not being able to life live to its fullest.
Lastly is somewhat the attachment to things. People are afraid to die because they fear losing everything. With death, you can’t bring anything to you to the grave. The emptiness somewhat also strikes fear into others as they don’t want to part with what they accomplish. Then again, why do you earn so much just to lose it all. Somewhat paradoxical as it seems.
Also a side detour into suicide. Many would argue since life is inherently meaningless, why don’t we just kill ourselves? Albert Camus put this nicely in which he says (probably butchered it) suicide is an acknowledgement of the absurdity of life and doing so just makes one’s life more absurd. Instead we should rebel against this and find the search for the meaning of life meaningful itself.
Apologies for the incoherent flow of thoughts, it’s just random suggestions and I hope it helps.
What makes you think your thought was random? Was there a random voltage fluctuation in your brain that caused that thought to occur? A cosmic ray striking a raw nerve?
Quoting Wandering-Philosopher
Life is a lot of work, for sure, but what makes you think it is [a] inherently [b] meaningless? How did you arrive at that conclusion -- both the meaninglessness, and the inherentness?
Quoting Wandering-Philosopher
A stronger statement might be "Being dead wouldn't be any worse than not being born."
Quoting Wandering-Philosopher
There's the difference between death and dying. Woody Allen said that he wasn't afraid of dying; he just didn't want to be there when it happened.
Obviously, one reason people fear death is that they have absorbed too much of the over-heated literal heaven/hell business of Christianity.
Haha I think this is beside the point of his question, some people start off like that to create a sense of informality. Maybe it was a casual thought, but most thoughts derive from a subconscious desire or idea, so some experience may have directed you to that thought without you knowing. Anyways I guess this is beside the point of the question.
Because we don't know if the after-life consists of our dreams of bedding the neighbour's beautiful wife or of our nightmares of being pursued by ferocious monsters.
good point. I believe in Jesus so i'll be bedding my neighbor's handsome son. Hes over 18. Don't judge.
LOL.
What a cvnt.
You must really dislike your work if it's worse than being dead.
One would hope the intent is to dissuade others from limiting their life choices and hence opportunity due to the fear, rational or irrational, of death. Within reasonable limits of course. Not locking your doors or traveling to unsavory neighborhoods obviously being excluded.
However, I have noticed people speak as if they know what "being dead" is due to their own ironic religious doctrine of believing only what can be proven, something that if followed would have us in a world without theories and essentially living in the Bronze Age. Or that persons lost to suicide did so for reasons other than deeply personal ones. They were likely suffering in some way and chose to end it. Terrible? Perhaps. But if people who did so wanted those they knew and chose to befriend in life to suffer as well they would've surely said so. I am not saying so little as that the decision should be respected as clearly the suffering was likely hoisted onto their plate and so had little say over it, rather that their life was exactly that, their life. Not an accent to another's for enjoyment or emotional depth that just so happens to affect one's own.
If you care about a social pandemic, where do you spend the majority of your time and energy. Analyzing the symptom or the cause?
Some people are comforted by a sense of control or knowledge or purpose or identity, the list goes on... which is why death terrifies them because it is a loss of any semblance of control over your existence/awareness, a point at which your direct influence on the world stops (hence why legacy is so prized to affirm ones validity in life).
It is also a point at which knowledge fails to extend beyond . .. a point of total ignorance and uncertainty, it is also the loss of ones identity. So naturally people fear it.
However if one were to live by a few fundamental philospohical tenets / beliefs - such as "I have no true control over my life", "I don't require purpose I am the purpose of my existence" -being present/state of now etc, or "my identity is an illusion/assumption built out of independent bias/prejudices and choices etc" or others like "rebirth" or "panpsychicism"... and so on, the list of logical reasons to fear death diminish.
My basic reason to try and avoid death is, that my life is the only time in which to do stuff that living things do. Which i'm sure are likely more diverse than those that dead things do.
While being a rock for a few million years sounds like a hoot I'd prefer my carbon to contribute to an experience of something for a while first. Haha
I wouldn’t take it personally. The internet brings out the worst.
@Baden, please delete my account and thread/s
Thank you.
"Life is hard work" but that hard work isn't your job? What is your hard work?
It is just kind of silly to say that death is not scarier than living, I assume you think that nothing comes after death. Then you ask "why fear death?" without really addressing any of the reasons that people fear death. You don't address the "trials and tribulations" either.
Many people posted way longer responses than you deserved but you seem to have ignored them and just focused on the one or two posts that poked fun at your poorly written OP. Then you insult the whole forum.
What do you think people should make of that?
So now it's a crime to try to do/learn about something worthwhile? Put someone in a racecar with no training. Put someone raised in the city their whole life into the wild forest with only the clothes on their backs. Put a beginner in chess against a lifelong prodigy. Bet they won't win.
Frankly, I think after one is enlightened, they want as little to do with technology or rather the modern world or current society as possible. Let's drop the crab mentality some eh. Let others grow.
I think you guys are brutal, and some of us don't arent ready for the hate. Considering I've lost everything in the last 3 months, including my "work" as you put it, and both my parents.
I had hoped that it would be a little more welcoming here... I don't suffer fools.
No problem. :victory:
I was only going to add to that, the fear of the unknown. Of course the irony is, here, the nature of our own existence is largely unknown.
To the OP, if life as we know it ( self-aware conscious existence) remains mysterious or unexplained, it seems as though it would follow that the similar phenomenon of death would be no less mysterious.
Nevertheless, to explore the nature of fear itself, would be worth the sojourn...
What made you interested in philosophy? Being able to understand more, become smarter, more sophisticated or otherwise improve your life? To improve the world and the lives of others around you? Whatever it was two highly circumstantial yet equally relevant facts remain. The world we live in is imperfect and though full of joy is also full of hardship. And it is in fact the gentle who would remind an adversary their shoes are untied and a true as you say "polisher of the posterior" who would instead say nothing and allow him to fall.
No not every thread here is a showstopper. But the majority are intellectually occupying and sometimes even downright over my head. Which is all good. I'd stick around a bit.
@Wandering-Philosopher I wouldn't if I were you, there are way too many sharks here.
I'd rather learn about wild animals from a virtual setting than in the wild, now wouldn't you?
So someone suffering sever emotional distress should face a real life animal attack instead of a metaphorical one as seems to be the subject here?
Yeah. Avoid all losing lottery tickets while you're at it. Funny people have that in common. You gotta scratch the surface before you determine the value.
Thats a false dilemma because you can avoid them both. If @Wandering-Philosopher wants to watch other members get ripped apart here on the philosophy forum, thats up to him. My only suggestion is to not get involved in wild internet philosophy, that's all.
At the end of the day there's only right and wrong. Justice and lack of it. The latter of which never lasts for long. I'd rather witness some of the wrong then know only the right. Perhaps I'd bring back a token of what was wrong as a momento or something. I'd be so jealous if I was born after the fact and someone I know lived to witness such a time.
I see no reason to add to my suffering at this time.
The irony now, as it is ME that others should be gentle with. I am sure this time will pass. However, the point is, the one's being a "shark" today could well be the one's in a depressive and unfortaunte state tomorrow. We must all treat each other as we would wish to be treated.
That goes for online forums too.
No good philosopher will ever be an utter ass to another. It simply makes no sense. All opinions are valid. All arguments can be counteragued with RESPECT.
These are basic moral values.
What part of free registration is not being factored into your view of this forum? The "good" philosophers are out writing books, teaching curious students at prestigious universities for top dollar, bettering themselves even. Not online. Of course, some do spare a moment for the sake of the art they love. :)
Seeing as you're a bit up there so to speak you could, generally, expect things to be kinder. Of course, knowing the chaos of life, war included, it can take an unfortunate circumstance to value constructive criticism albeit delivered in a rude way over smiles and a high five.
Many people simply don't know how to converse with each other in a decent manner.
Free registration is always factored into view, hence why I am leaving of course.
The masochist (just kidding guy :P ) was because your apparent nonchalance toward someone taking their own life obviously struck a nerve. The other simply can relate to the fear of death or is otherwise a functional person who naturally fears the end of bio stasis. Knowing this you surely have no bone to pick with them.
Why did you join anyhow? Because you're a professional or looking to learn? If you're the latter I think you could reason just as well as I can why that could be a foolish choice.
Thank you kindly.
Edit: @Hanover
You ignored all the constructive responses and cried about the one you didn't like. I think you need to get a grip.
You can kill the messenger but not the message. It either has a point or it doesn't. And if it truly doesn't, what difference is it then receiving a telegram in a foreign language? It is not for you to be processed. Of course.. we have innate intelligence and at times it can conflict with our indoctrinated ways.
Quoting Judaka
This is a vicious place, you’re the only one here to have shown that you use your mind.
I took that into account and deleted a far harsher reprimand and edited into "get a grip". My kindness is great.
Thanks for the tag.
Quoting Wandering-Philosopher
Sorry you feel that way. I'll do that.