But what if there isn't an afterlife? What about that “dreamless sleep” that Socrates spoke about? Isn’t total annihilation of the self, like, the scariest thing there is?
Ancient Stoic philosopher Epicurus didn't think so. He lived about a hundred years after Socrates and rejected belief in an afterlife altogether. Instead, he said we’re just our bodies and nothing more.
But still, he didn't find death scary. Here is his argument:
Death is the cessation of sensation. Good and evil only make sense in terms of sensations. So, Death is neither good nor evil.
Epicurus was convinced that things are only evil, or bad, if they feel bad. And he did not mean only physical feelings, anyone who’s ever had a broken heart will tell you that it's a lot more painful, and harder to heal, than a broken leg. But a broken heart is still a sensation you need a body to experience it so as a materialist someone who believed that you equal your body death just meant nonexistence. And there was nothing scary about that, because, well, there won't be any you to have feelings about not existing!
Epicurus argued that fearing nonexistence is not only stupid, but it gets in the way of enjoying life. You are alive and experiencing sensations, now. So, he said, make those sensations as great as possible, and don't worry about when those sensations are going to stop! YOLO!
To help you understand Epicurus and his attitudes about death a little better, let's head over to the Thought Bubble for some Flash Philosophy:
Think about a hangover, If you haven't had one, imagine what they might be like. Hangovers aren't bad for you before you get one, right? In fact, the thing that comes before the hangover is often quite pleasant, what with all the laughing, and feeling uninhibited, and working up the courage to talk to that cutie from your calculus class. No, the hangover is only bad while it's happening. And true, it might be bad after it's over, like, if it kept you from doing well on your calculus exam next morning because you were too busy trying not to barf in front of said cutie. But the point is, if something is bad for you, it's generally bad for you at a particular time the way a hangover is. But Epicurus said that death can't be bad for you at any time. Because once it arrives, you're gone! What the thing that eventually kills you? Yeah, that's gone be bad for you, before your death, but that's not death.
When you think about it, you and death are never present at the same time. And if there is no you when death is present, then there is no time in which death is bad for you. Thanks, thought bubble.
for:阅读练习生
乙亥年七月初八