Argument against Todd May's "worry that life will be meaningless"


  1. "Death is the end of us"
  2. "Death isn't a goal, it's just the end"
  3. "Death is inevitable and uncertain"
  4. "1-3 together makes us worry that life is meaningless."
Premises one through three are what May claims makes his argument in four valid and hold. We will unpack his premises and find other arguments against them. May does not address people who have set their mind on death as their peaceful end in his argument. Premise two is one I can't agree with. Some hospitalized patients, see their deaths as their goal. They want to die and have made it their sole goal to end some type of suffering. My question therefore is, to these hospitalized individuals suffering, who have made death their sole goal, does May's argument about the miserability of life still hold? I think not. It therefore stands to reason death can be one's actual goal. I know May might or those who subscribe to his argument might argue that there hospitalized patients are merely trying to end their suffering thus, making death an end.
 
To answer these foreseen genuine argument we have to take a look into the field of history. Looking back at the time the Roman empire was at the peak of their power, we saw numerous wars, battles and gladiatorial fights. These warriors fought with only one goal, and it was to die for leader and for republic. The fights held in the Colosseum being for entertainment had only one outcome, to kill or be killed. The fighters, one might argue fought to gain their freedom. This however was not the case most of the time and some historical records make it evident they enjoyed fighting to the death. They made death their sole goal. They went into the pit with their sole aim to die and their opponent same. This bit explains how death could be a goal through a different lens. 

Furthermore, is death really "the end of us." First we must understand the different meanings of the word "end." 
  • A stop to something abruptly.
  • A final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story.
  • The furthest or most extreme part or point of something.
Following the deciphering of the word "us", we should know May explains his argument with the first definition. I agree with the meaning of stop May uses to convey his point and so therefore we must define the word "Us" in terms of May's argument and how we want to use it. May defines "Us" as our experiences, relationships, and projects. I believe our legacy should count as a part of "us." Due to our legacies living on a few months, years, decades, centuries, and even millenniums, we can say some part of "us"continues to live on after our experiences and projects has come to an abrupt halt. Due to new arguments against the first and second premises, we can say May's argument in four does not hold.

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