Epicurus Philosophical View On Death

Epicurus's view on death

Epicurus was born in the colony of Samos in 341 BCE and his father sent him to join a team of colonists in 352 BCE. He however began to study philosophy when he was fourteen years of age .At the age of 18 years; he went to Athens but short-lived there owing to the opposition he gave to the Perdiccas who was the successor of Alexander the great. He therefore went to Colophon to unite with his father and in 310BCE he managed to secure a residence in Mitylene that lead him to develop a philosophical school. The following year he went to Lampusacus where he taught for four years before moving back to Athens where he lived and taught philosophy till his death (Davies 1999, p.130-131).

Among his prominent philosophical teachings emerged a philosophy that "death is nothing to us and we should not fear it" (Warren 2004, p. 191). His argument is rational however it's not genuine as everyone fears death. Epicurus argument is in itself supportive since the existence of a death denotes non existence of life, whereas the existence of life excludes the existence of death. It would therefore be meaningless to fear something in its absence. Death is just an illusion that we imagine comes to take us .In reality we do not face death nor does death face us since the existence of one such element excludes the existence of the other. Logically this is a mutually exclusive event that is controversial in nature. According to Epicurus death is nothing to humans and as a result we should not fear it .I agree with his perception since once death faces us we do not feel its sensation as we cease to exist. If we could be facing death when we are still alive it could be sensational and there would be logic in fearing death. The aspect of non-existence that death brings about is enough prove that death is not worthy to be feared (Warren 2004, 191).

According to Epicurus, it is meaningless to develop a fearful expectation of a feeling of death. There is logic in his argument however it would be unrealistic to find people believing in him since every human being including Epicurus himself has an irrational fear of death. The thought that death should not be feared becomes illogical in the practical world despite the fact that it is absolutely logical in the idealistic environment. The fact that people see the consequences of death as it impacts them negatively tends to refute Epicurus statement that death is not worth to be feared by mankind. It is however illogical to fear death on interpersonal basis however it is rational to develop a fear on death based on our colleagues (Davies 1999, p.61).The natural fear of death can be associated with failure by the existing humans to understand death since its occurrence develops a lot of sorrows for those who have lost their family members and their loved ones. Besides, the lack of information on what happens after death brings a feeling of fear and this makes people frightened based on the unforeseeable future of the dead. The idea of death therefore brings us a lot of sadness as a result of losing someone we love (Davies1999, p.198-199).

If we base our argument on the cycle of death we will not fear death .This is due to the fact that prior to birth there is the phase of non existence .Life is therefore a cyclic process consisting of several phases such as nonexistence phase, birth, life and finally death that leads us to the non-existence phase once more. (Davies 1999, p.60). This argument can be substantiated by the fact that we do not fear the state of existence before we are born, so why should we be frightened about the period after existence. This is analogous to the question."If we did not fear what happened yesterday, why should we fear about what will happen tomorrow? This means that death is natural and a good thing a fact that brings refutation on the concept of viewing death as an evil thing. Exclusion of death would disrupt the life cycle as there would no birth. This is to say that the human character should welcome death in a jovial mood the way they welcome new births (Davies1999, p.240-242).

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The human nature is designed in such a way that it is easier for humans to say that something is evil instead of acknowledging that such a thing is unknown and incomprehensible as regards human logic. The experience we get when we see someone die leads to a conclusion that death is evil and the concept of fear of death is enhanced by the fact that it takes away people randomly as you cannot predict who is next in the queue of death. Despite the fact that I agree with Epicurus philosophical view that fearing death is illogical, I also agree that the fear of death is universal. This fear is based on the concept behind the power in death that takes away people forever .This has however lead to the theory of incarnation where it is believed that death is just a transition in metamorphosis of human beings from one stage to another just like the egg, larvae and pupa stages in the caterpillar developmet.What theorecians argue is that death is a transition and a person might for example die to be reborn