Comparing Rosenbaum's Essay 'To Be Dead And Not Care'

“The prospect of death is at best a disquieting annoyance; it is at worst a terrifying mystery” (Rosenbaum 175). Death, a tragedy of life, is an experience that each and every one of us have to undergo through at a certain point in our lifetime. May it be from old age, sickness, violence etc. death is a state of affairs that is inescapable. Stephen Rosenbaum, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, writes the essay “How to Be Dead and Not care” where he introduces Epicurus’ argument, defends and explicates it while also incorporating an American philosopher Thomas Nagel, objections to the argument. Evidently Rosenbaum’s essay serves as an insight for readers to learn how to value and repurpose their lives to be better than they are. Personally I do believe that death is not always bad for one in that, if a person were sick and day-in-day-out they were in pain, which hindered their daily interactions and experiences, then their death is not bad. At this point the person is at peace hence no pain, no sufferings, and no worries. Looking at the antithesis of my belief, if a happy person dies of a car accident then at this point death is bad for them since it deprives the person of their continued happiness and
Rosenbaum states “Epicurus offered a remedy for our attitudes towards our death” (Rosenbaum 175). People spend minutes, hours sometimes days preoccupied with the thought of death. Conjuring death in their mind is worse than actually experiencing it. Indeed, if something has no impact on a person, then there is no need of thinking about it. Once in a while it’s fine to think about death but it should take control of our lives. Instead one should try as much as possible to maximize pleasures and minimize pain. Evidently when one does so then the attitude towards death is no longer about fear but about how to escape the mere fact of