Epicurus Towards Death: Letter to Menoeceus

[@hiltonklitzna9394]

Love the inclusion of kagan & nagels contribution to extending & challenging the epicurean. Solid video

[@thelotuseater6496]

Death is nothing to us, we will never “be” dead, of course, we will die, and dying can and often is a harm. There are countless potential causes of horrifying agonies during the process of dying, however death itself never actually occurs to us. We are not around to experience death, since death doesn’t have an experience. Many misinterpret what non existence actually is, as something quite horrifying; eternal darkness, never ending nothingness, blackness, the void etc etc. What non existence actually is, is that it *isn’t*. It quite literally doesn’t exist, and has nothing to do with any of our lives. Why fear what does not exist? One reason is that the fear of death is deeply ingrained in our biologically evolved minds. Think about it, if we did not fear death, the human race would not have ever existed, an ancestral species would have died out from sheer apathy at the concept of death. Entire ecosystems would have never evolved in the first place. Another reason is the ego, many of us dislike the thought of no longer being simply because we like being. Why else would we seek a legacy? Why else would we fear being forgotten? Of course, there is also the cultural reason, in modern western culture, death is taboo, swept under the rug, corpses are treated to remain in the form of our beloved confidants, then place in a box and buried. We deny death, yet paradoxically are obsessed with it. We watch shows where characters die left, right and centre. By making death such a taboo, and being surrounded by others who avoid the topic makes us conform to the fear, regardless of the fear’s actually validity. Many of us believe and fear that there is nothing after death, as though the whole of existence ends upon the cessation of your internal conscious experience. However, empirical observations say otherwise. 150,000 people die every day and yet the universe is still here, there isn’t nothing after you die, there’s *a lot* after you die, “you” just aren’t there to experience it. There also wasn’t nothing before birth btw. Everyone here has qualia, a sense of self. There’s nothing unique or special about “your” qualia, everyone calls themselves “I” or “me” and the brain doesn’t have the magical ability to create something that wasn’t already there. Just rearrange it in the form of “you.” After all, diamonds are just carbon atom arranged in a certain way. Even atoms themselves are just sub atomic particles (condensed waves of energy) arranged to form different elements. In conclusion: Death is simply the end of you, it doesn’t condemn you to eternal darkness, hell it doesn’t even end consciousness, just an individual continuity, a continuity and sense of self that is in of itself an illusion. Death is just change

[@BladeOfSorrows]

Thats pretty much my fear of death, is just not existing "being alive" anymore. And of course what happens after, if there's an afterlife or not.

[@jacksonkempen236]

@@BladeOfSorrows As much as I enjoy the rationality behind Epicurus with death. I hope for an afterlife. I love being conscious and learning.

[@philipkim9779]

Thank you for this excellent video.

[@alicetucker7011]

This was great! I am writing a paper on preparing for death and this helped me a lot. Very interesting too.

[@MaieuticsYT]

I've also made a video on death in Plato's Apology and an older one on death in the Laozi and Zhuangzi that you may find helpful. Thanks for the kind comment!

[@yiganatifu2431]

Wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful.

[@toxicweast1634]

Never take this video down

[@SebastianGonzalez-cf1jl]

This was really good. Do you happen to have another example of Nagel's Comparitive Harm thesis?

[@death2abrahamism]

Death also isn't the end. A continuation through one's offspring is essentially immortality. It is an eternal life, even if you don't personally witness all of it. Not much different than not witnessing the night while you sleep.

[@mr.plaguedoc9284]

great video, but what's up with the annoying background music? no music or at least something calmer is much preferred in these topics.