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FEAR AND DEATH IN PLATO by Emily A. Austin A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 Saint Louis, Missouri. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would have never come to fruition without the help of many people. First, I thank my advisor, Eric Brown.
Death is the “great unknown,” and that's why it's so frightening. Also, we perceive the inevitability of death long before it happens, which can be worrying, even tormenting. This fear and suffering keeps us from thinking seriously about death as it impedes our happiness. We need to know how to do this, how to live in freedom, not being imprisoned by the future and not being carried away.
Death itself, no. True philosophers accept life and death equally and understand that one begins and the other ends. As for types of death, that's a possibility but again, it's still death and is accepted. We can accept at any moment, death may.
Being able to live life without fear of death would vastly improve people's dispositions. I think we all should take a cue from Epicurus' argument and seize the day, rather than wasting our time on irrational fears. Works Cited Epicurus. The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1994. Translated and Edited by Brad Inwood and L.P. Gerson. Lucretius.
In the Apology of Socrates, he says that 'To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. And surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one.
Download file to see previous pages The philosophy argues that since the predominant source of unhappiness was the human body, happiness could only be derived when the body became devoid of pain or suffering, therefore relieving the human from psychic trauma. Epicureans advocated that for humans to circumvent their fear of gods, and their fear of death humanity should adopt a rational and.
The suggestion then is that animals do not fear death, which is contradicted by the existence of the near-universal self-preservation instinct. It is certainly a common feature among all mammals, a group to which humans belong, to avoid and even fear any injury, and in particular any threat to life.