Should we Fear Death?

By Madeleine Kando

Here is a layman’s attempt at understanding

Thomas Nagel’s argument that Death is a bad thing.

Talking about death in a rational, unemotional way is the domain of philosophers. As long as it is not their death, that is. That is why I find what Thomas Nagel has to say about the Grim Reaper fascinating. Should we see death as a bad thing, a good thing, or neither?

Nagel argues that death is not bad in itself, but since death deprives you of life, it means that it is indirectly bad. Even if a life is full of misery? Yes, because even misery is an experience. Death is devoid of experience, so even a life full of misery is preferable to death.

Some philosophers in the past have argued that the fear of death is irrational since there won’t be any post-death experiences. You cannot be afraid of something that doesn’t exist. As Epicurus put it: 'Where death is, I am not; where I am, death is not.'

Another argument put forth against the fear of death is that it doesn’t matter whether you die young or old, since you will be dead forever either way.

A third point is that your nonexistence after death is just a mirror image of your nonexistence before your birth. Why should you fear one more than the other?

Unfortunately, Thomas Nagel criticizes all three arguments against the fear of death, in his essay ‘Death’. ‘Suppose’, Nagel says, ‘an intelligent person has a brain injury that reduces him to the mental condition of a contented baby. Certainly, this would be a grave misfortune for the person. Then is not the same true for death, where the loss is still more severe?’

The second argument, that dying young is not worse than living long, is just as poor. Being alive and having experiences is what is good about life. If a person dies prematurely, she is deprived of those experiences. Being dead is neither good nor bad since it is devoid of experiences. Therefore, what is evil about death is not the state of being dead, but the loss of life. More of life is better than less. Bach had more of it than Schubert because he lived longer.

If death is bad, how can prenatal nonexistence not be bad too? But death is a result of having lived. The time after you die is time of which your death deprives you. You might have lived longer. But you could not possibly have existed in the time before your birth. Had you been conceived earlier than you actually were, you would have had a different genetic identity. In other words, you would not be you.

Nagel argues that a philosophical indifference to death is not only philosophically unsound but can be morally dangerous. If my own death is nothing, then why get worked up over the deaths of others?

There was a time when I had the unshakeable certainty of youth. But what awaits me now, has the most certainty of all. It is the final, undisputable point where everyone ends up: it is death.

Still, it is what happens before death that is more important. Thinking about death is futile because death isn’t anything, is it? It’s a concept. I go for my daily walk in the cemetery. Not because I am a necrophiliac, but because cemeteries don’t allow dogs, bikes, or cars. The perfect environment to walk in peace. When I put my shoes on, my husband says: ‘Say hi to Joe’. That’s a euphemism for the dead people.

But the skeletons decaying in those graves are not people. They house the memories of the people who cared for them. They come and put flowers on their graves, mourn them, and have experiences for them. 

My mother Ata’s ashes are in my garden, surrounded by purple periwinkles that are blooming at this time of year. We think of her, sadness washes over us like a wave. We feel for Ata, who is no longer able to feel. She isn’t there, but we make her be there, so we can conjure up our memories of her. Graves do that, they invoke the dead. The dead who don’t exist.

If this post puts you in a depressed mood, don’t worry. That means that you are still on this side of the dividing line. Nagel says that even being depressed is good. The alternative is not to feel anything. And that is death. It IS frightening, even though it doesn’t exist. leave comment here