Epicurus's View Of Death

Epicurus was a philosopher who was believed to be the one with all the answers to life. He encouraged the Ideal of Good Life, to live simply by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain and worry. The renowned philosopher strongly believed that death was merely ‘nothing to us’ and the ‘privation’ of ‘sense experience’. He further expressed how the idea of death only causes ‘unnecessary pain’ when ‘merely anticipated’. Perhaps it is easier to enjoy life whilst we have it, rather than constantly dreading the inevitable. By "death," I believe Epicurus did not mean the mere process of dying which may, in some cases, be very painful, and thus, bad for us. He also did not mean the moment of death, of which we may or may not have an experience and which
It could be argued that the questions surrounding death and the afterlife form the basis of many philosophic concepts. To some philosophers, not only is the concept of death itself important, but also how people perceive it, and why they perceive it the way they do. Epicurus's claim that the soul is mortal, is an excellent explanation for why we should not fear death. To understand Epicurus's philosophy on the fear of death, we fist have to understand Epicurus's perception of the universe, and why he believes the soul is mortal. Further, when justifying Epicurus’ view point, it may be very useful to distinguish between three particular concepts from one another; that being: ‘dying, death, and being dead’, as each are significantly different from one another. (Rosenbaum, p.
Nonetheless, some pleasures may lead to even greater pain, like imbibing copious amounts of alcohol, and so the wise person will shun them. On the other hand, certain pains, like sadness, can lead to an appreciation for life or compassion, which are highly pleasurable states. We should not therefore get rid of all negative emotions, but only those that lead to unnecessary pains. This objective view of the soul leads Epicurus to his most important argument against being scared of death. If our soul passes when our body dies, then there simply is no reason at all to fear the thought of death, because we simply will not be around to live through it. Furthermore, Epicurus merely looks to his senses to provide him with an understanding of the earth and then develops conclusions from its pertaining to the soul. When people pass they no longer have locomotion, their physical being decays and the warmth leaves their bodies. The material soul will exit with death and leave the body cold, no longer holding it together. Further, Epicurus, as an anatomist, would claim that all of the elements and atoms of the body are simply distributed back into the physical world – that is, including the soul. Therefore, this idea cancels out any possibility of sense-perception, since the soul simply purely has access to sense perceptions