The symmetry argument
Death cannot be an evil, for where it is, we no longer are.
Supports
Epicurus, Lucretius · Letter to Menoeceus; On the Nature of Things
- An evil is an evil only for someone who undergoes it: pain, loss, fear all presuppose a subject present to feel them.
- But in death there is no one left: "while we exist, death is not here; when death is here, we no longer exist." There is therefore no subject it could harm.
- adds a symmetry: the eternity that preceded our birth does not distress us; why should the one that follows our death, which resembles it in every respect, frighten us?
Therefore Therefore fearing death is groundless: freeing ourselves from it lets us serenely enjoy the present life.
How far does this reasoning convince you?
Not at all
Entirely
Deepenings
"Death is nothing to us"
- Epicurus writes to Menoeceus that becoming familiar with the idea that death is nothing to us makes mortal life joyful, not by adding endless time, but by removing the craving for immortality.
- The sage therefore does not dread no longer living, just as he does not suffer from not having lived earlier: it is the same nothingness, indifferent in both directions.
How far does this reasoning convince you?
Not at all
Entirely
Put to the test
Objection
Held by