if_death u24 is the end, must we accept that it is irrational to fear it? . 041117 ... Lemon_Soda Socrates thought so. Well, really, that was only half the question. He was of the mind that if you died and simply ceased to be, than death would be a welcome respite. However, if you died and went to an afterlife, you are still in being and so should not fear the eventuality. Basically, whatever death could be, I really have no reason to fear it besides the instinctual fear of the unknown, whitch is irrational. 041117 ... misstree i fear not being able to cross anything else off my list. i fear losing all the unplucked opportunities. 041117 ... u24 as Epicurus said "(death) is of no concern to us, for while we exist, death is not present, and when death is present, we no longer exist". I, however, agree wholeheartedly with misstree; the fact that I will no longer exist when dead does not make my fear of death irrational. I may well fear death because I fear my hopes and dreams may not come to fruition - the fact that I will not care when dead does not stop me caring while alive. 041117 ... Piso Mojado i'm reading Pema Chodron's "When Things Fall Apart, and from what i can deduce from her writing, she would argue that no, just because we know that death is the end it does not mean we should stop fearing it. Instead, the knowledge of our death is something we should face- because we spend a good chunk of our time trying to distract ourselves from this fact- distract ourselves with various addictions. We should face the knowledge of our death by dwelling in it, by not indugling in our normal practices of escapism. We should sit and be with that utter crushing realization that we will die, that we are helpless, that 'things change, that the sand is slipping through our fingers.' But this realization does not imply that we should not fear death- that fear and that knowledge can provide 'proper motivation for living an insightful, compassionate life.' dont ignore the fact of your impending death- youre only fooling yourself. And 'fear of death is the background of the whole things. It's why we feel restless, why we panic, why their's anxiety.But if we exerience total hopelessness, give up all hopes of alternatives to the present moment, we can have a joyful relationship with our lives, an honest, direct relationship, one that no longer ignores that reality of impermanence and death.' (this isnt as well written as i would like it to be, but im hoping the point im making is getting across) 041117 ... u24 this is the topic of an essay I'm doing for metaphysics. (nearly finished) I'll post it on my website when I'm done. along with "Suppose you are confronted with an intriguing device. what would it take to convince you that the device could think?" - i got 60% for that one, a low 2.1, which is the second highest mark you can get (it goes: fail/pass/third/2.2/2.1/first). so it's not bad. 041120 ... Mr Manson "without the threat of death there's no reason to live"? 041122 ... u24 I got 66% for the death essay. w00t! 050120 ... u24 see http://www.puremango.co.uk/cm_philosophy_99.php for the essay itself, should you be interested. 050120 what's it to you? who go blather from