Is Death Bad for the One Who Dies

Charles Bourthoumieux

In what sense, if any is death bad for the on who dies.

Throughout this essay we will focus on demonstrating in which ways death can be bad for you, moreover we will mainly focus on Epicurius' arguments on death. Mostly assuming that the only intrinsic bads and goods are pain and pleasure.

Assuming that our death is our anhilation and that the only goods and bads are pleasure and pains, it is impossible to say that the state of being dead is intrinsically bad or good, because anihilated one feels no pleasures and no pains. Still, dying can be painful and that is the only sense – if any- in which death is intrinsically bad. If death is bad or good for you in the hedonist sense it must be instrumentally and before the time of your death.

How wil your death be bad for you you might ask. “When death is present you are not and when you are it is not”(Epicurius). How can something be bad for you if it doesn't exist yet. Actually in numerous ways, your death does not exist however death is omnipresent in the world. Some more than others, but most have been in contact with it, consequentially they can anticipate their own demise and fear it, fear is a pain therefore death is bad for you by anticipation.It seems to be difficult that the idea of death is hard on the individual, Shakespear puts it eloquently in Hamlet's famous soliliquy « conscience doth make cowards of us all ». In some cases the fear of death becomes so great that it makes life dull, even disregarding this eventuallity one rarely has a pleasant time thinking about their death. However Epicurius' argument is more intricate, he knows we fear death and advocates that it is not rational to fear it. Death is bad for us because we fear it however we have no reason to fear it -according to epicurius- because it does not concern « the living nor the dead ». hence it is nothing to us.

« Death is nothing to us », arguably nothing is neither good or bad and that is...