Is Death Bad?
Matthew Vogelman, WVU Undergraduate Student
?Death, what do you all know about death??-Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes from Platoon. We know next to no solid facts about death even though death has touched everyone at one point or another. The thought of death crosses our minds occasionally, but plagues the thoughts of some. Death is a topic that people avoid, because they are afraid, and it also brings up some deep emotions from the loss of loved ones. Is death actually a bad thing worth fearing? No. When most people think of death they think of how someone dies. How you die is something worth fearing, there is an endless list of unpleasant ways to die. I?m referring to death as the act of being dead. Even if you put how you die aside, the thought of death still horrifies people. Philosophers like Epicures have tried to rid people of their fear of death but their arguments have not been embraced widely. I will present my own argument for the reassuring conclusion that we should not fear death.
Using some common sense, anyone can realize that fearing death is not logical. No matter what you do, or how hard you try, one day you will be dead. Since there is nothing that could be done by anyone about the fact you will one day be dead, it is not logical to fear death. There is no point in fearing something that is inevitable. It is pointless to add another stress to your life and worry about something that can not be changed. If you just follow this it shows why.
Inevitability of Death Argument ? Matthew Vogelman
(1) Death is inevitable
(2) If (1), then there is nothing that could be done about the fact that you are mortal and one day you will be dead.
(3) There is nothing that can be about death (1)(2)
(4) Fearing X is rational only if there is something that could be done about X.
(5) Fearing death is irrational (3)(4)
You can break it down to help get rid of any confusion or doubts. (1) Means that death is inevitable and will happen eventually, no one lived forever. (2) States that if (1) is true then there is nothing that could be done about the fact that you are mortal and will die eventually, since everyone is mortal and everyone dies eventually (2) is true. (3) Just combines (1) and (2) so it is also true. (4) Is not meant to make a clear cut line between rational and irrational fears, only to state a requirement of a rational fear. If you use (4) to show that fearing something that nothing could be done about is irrational along with (3) the fear of death being irrational is true.
