The Philosophy of Death

Life is a series of commitments and goals that goes on for a finite amount of time.  A commitment is something that you put your focus and your efforts into; a goal is something that you aim to achieve before your time in this world comes to an end.  Death is the end of your commitments and projects all together; death is not something that you strive for at all.  Having a finite amount as an inhabitant on this earth does not make life meaningless because we have successors that will become inhabitants of this earth and accomplish the projects we could not accomplish during the short span of our existence and maybe accomplish even more than we have before our death. If life never ended, then it would be meaningless because your commitments and goals would keep going for an infinite amount of time and the things you commit to and strive to achieve become no longer enjoyable after a certain period of time. Having a finite time on this earth can be a valuable thing because t...

Caitlin Doughty's video was talking to your parents about death. She claims that there is a seven step process/guide to talking to your parents about death.             1. Go into "battle" so we confront the situation head on and right away             2. Start early!!             3. Be prepared for denial             4. Have sympathy             5. Show the facts relating as to why it is important to bring up this issue             6. Know what questions to bring up in the conversation             7. Treat yourself!!           Some positives I see to her seven step process, is that it is good to start early and be prepared to do whatever your parents want with their body. This is good to honor their wishes and know they are happy with their dead ...

In Caitlin Doughty's video Ask a Mortician- Confronting Your Death expresses that since most humans are afraid of death, we must confront it. Instead of not talking about death, we should talk about what we want happening to our bodies after death. She mentions being buried typically within a casket, burning the body to ashes, or being buried within the ground naturally without having your body trapped in a box. In simpler words, conventional burial, cremation, and natural burial. Doughty believes we shouldn't be shy to talk about this. Although I agree with her, I do believe it will take time to actually talk about what happens to your own body. Some, of course, will feel the extreme uncomforted feeling of this thought because it still relates to you dying. But, I do believe that it may cause a little more unease to yourself. In my view, I can think about what I want happening to my body, but the only discomfort I'd feel while thinking about this is how I won't be sure...

Doughty says that the best way to lessen your fear of dying is to think of what you want done with your body after you die. She says that something shifts when you think about your own demise in this way. I agree with this. The best way to get over a fear is to face whatever you are afraid of. Of course, you won’t actually face your death until the day legitimately comes, but thinking about what you want done with your dead body creates more exposure to the idea of your own death without imagining yourself in the process of actually dying, which is what drives most people’s fear of death. Imagining what happens to our dead body should be easier than imagining how and when we will die. Imagining how and when we will die will likely just create more anxiety than we already have around our deaths, but imagining what we want done with our bodies is a less scary way of confronting your own death. Thinking about your body after your death should be easy because you are skipping the part tha...

Caitlin Doughty's video on Youtube called "Ask a Mortician" is about how we should prepare for our inevitable death and decay. Her reasoning as to why is that she starts off with a Mark Twain quote.  Twain makes the following statement: "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it". I agree with Twain's statement because why should we care about something that does not harm us.We did not really care about being born before we were born and we are not likely to care about not being alive after we die. The reason why it is hard to talk about our death is because as humans we are into this "being-conscious". Doughty says the best way to not fear death is think about what you want done with your dead body. The three most common ways on what to do with a dead body are conventional burial, cremation, and natural burial. A conventional burial is an embalmed body in s...

Caitlin Doughty concludes that we fear death.  Her reasons to support this conclusion are that our death would cause grief to our family and friends, our ambitions, plans, and projects would come to an end, I'm worried that the process of death would be painful, I would no longer have experiences, I would no longer be able to care for my dependents, I'm afraid to die because of what might happen if there is an afterlife, I'm afraid of what might happen to my body after I die.  My objections to the reasons that Caitlin Doughty offers are that death and dying are different in the way that death is not a painful process because you're already dead, but dying is painful because you have not yet DIED.  Another objection that I have is that certain family members may not grieve your loss.  Last, but not least, after you die, you have no physical or emotional control over your body.

Epicurus argues that we should not fear our death because once we die we will feel nothing and not exist so therefore, there is nothing to worry about.  Since we do not exist after our death then we cannot experience our death.  Without experiencing our death it is not good or bad for us and so we have nothing to fear.  To follow this argument you must agree that we do not survive our death which while I do think we survive our death I will not argue that point. I disagree with the fact that we should not fear death because we will not exist.  A lot of peoples biggest fear is to be forgotten and not to be remembered by people, so thinking we will not exist at all will really scare people because it is the unknown.  Everyone knows we will die so I do not think it is the fact of dying that will scare us but the fact of not existing at all.  I think it is almost better for people to be told they are going to exist so they believe they will get to live on....

According to Epicurus in his Letter to Menoceus, he argues that death causes no harm for the one who dies. Although many fear death, Epicurus says we shouldn't fear it and that one's death isn't a bad thing to oneself. Epicurus notes that some people think that death is bad not because it's painful when it occurs, but it causes pain to the living, affecting them the most. He then argues that fearing the pain of death is absurd because the living shouldn't be worried about death and when it occurs because it hasn't happened yet; it hasn't yet arrived. I disagree on his statement of saying the living should not fear death just because it hasn't yet arrived. As humans, we're always curious about things, especially things we don't know or understand. we don't like knowing not what's going to happen, especially when it involves death. No one knows exactly what happens after death. We don't have solid facts and evidence if we live onto t...

Death is natural and so is grief. Grief comes into play when a loved one has passed on or is no longer in said life. The emotions that come along with grief are strong and powerful, which could be overpowering for some. These emotions include shock, confusion, guilt, anger, bitterness, hostility, and many others. This feelings can be evoked not just when a loved one passes, but also when a loved one is no longer a main role in life. Such as going missing, disowning the family, going to prison, etc…The lack of the loved one’s presence creates this overwhelming emotion which is known as grief. A main question, though, can grief be good? Overall examining the process of grief can lead to an understanding that everything happens for a reason. Loss is natural and is bound to happen in life; which in turn means that grief is inevitable. Grief is painful and not typically sought after. Pain resonates a signal that something is wrong and not normal. Pain, in the long run, can create the sen...

        Seneca says that we should not grieve excessively. While you may wonder why we grieve, it is because death is a natural thing we should all be aware of. When death does happen, grieve as little as possible to cope with losing a loved one. In doing so, our lives will be remarkably better than they are while grieving.          According to Seneca, anything we say or do that involves grief, is not good. He goes on later to say that the death of a child is not worse than the death of an old person. How could someone contradict the societal norm by saying something like that, when we all freak out over the death of a younger child? He also claims that people are foolish and ungrateful for the time we did get to spend with our lost loved one.          I believe Seneca to be wrong in all his claims. This is because we can not put a timer on how long we grieve. Everyone is different in the way and time in which th...

I think this really depends on how melancholy a person is naturally. I think that being aware of our mortality can make the majority of people double check their actions and their words, but it’s not even that often that people even think about the fact that they are mortal in their day to day life. I don’t really think a lot of people my age are even thinking about death, and if they are then it’s in the existential crisis “what do I do with my life” kind of thinking about death, not how to invest relationships. I think sometimes, too, awareness of our mortality can create this sense in people that they need to go out and do the most dangerous things or risk it for the biscuit 24/7 and then they end up in a lot of trouble. Some people think death is terrifying and want to distract themselves and this is where a lot of things like drugs or alcohol can come in as a way to distract generally depressed people from the reality of their deaths. It really depends on the person, and if they...

I think that there are some good points brought up by Emilia for why immortality would be a bad thing. Boredom, melancholy, emptiness, everything would become pointless, existence would become foggy… and the thought would come up, “It’s not right to live so long. I wasn’t meant to live this long”. I think that it would become kind of sad, to see so many people come and go, to see the world change and want to tell your friends who maybe were mortal. It just seems like a pretty despaired life. I wonder what it means, when she says that we weren’t meant to be immortal. Do we even have a purpose? If we’re just going to die, what would that purpose be? It’s really mind boggling to think about, when you get to the nitty gritty stuff that she’s saying. I personally don’t think I would want to be immortal, maybe others would and that’s fair, but I personally believe it would be a little miserable.

I think that Seneca raises some interesting points, however I don’t totally agree with them. I think that the one that makes sense is grief becomes unreasonable when the point of crying is self serving, wanting people to pay attention to you because you’re sad. I have definitely experienced people in my own family do that and I was mad because they weren’t honoring the person lost, they were just shifting the spotlight to be on them. I saw it as kind of manipulative and sad. I think, however, Seneca is entirely wrong when he says that the way to fix the issue of overwhelming grief is to just avoid deeper friendships. Humans are relational beings, I feel like that lifestyle would cause me a lot of anxiety and hardship, I would want to feel close to my friends. To only have superficial relationships that you view through a lens of “you’ll die one day” sounds horrible, at least to me. I would like to clarify, though, that that doesn’t mean your relationships should be codependent, which ...