PHI 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Lucretius
Document Summary
[d]eath is the unequivocal and permanent end of our existence. (nagel page 734) Permanent death : no form of conscious survival. Is it bad to die: death is dreadful, no objection to death per se (but hopefully it won"t be premature or painful) Nagel: death is an evil because it brings to an end all the goods that life contains (nagel page 734) Death is evil because of what it deprives us of. This fact shows that life is not about mere organic survival (e. g. , dying now or being in a coma for 20 years) or length of life (e. g. , being frozen and waking up 300 years later). Whether death is good or bad matters even those who believe in an afterlife because their view about death colors their view about the afterlife. The additional positive weight is supplied by experience itself, rather than by any of its contents.
