Analysis Of Thomas Nagel's Thoughts On Death

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Thomas Nagel’s Thoughts on Death Is death an evil thing no matter what the circumstances might be? Does it really matter when death happens or how long we take to get there? These are questions I asked myself over the years as I have gotten older and have seen family members die. To me at least, Thomas Nagel has answered my questions. In Nagel’s project he asks the question if death is an evil thing. Setting aside any ideas of an afterlife or the soul still existing after death he states this: “If death is an evil at all, it cannot be because of its positive features, but only because of what it deprives us of.” (p. 113) Which means that death is indeed a bad thing to a person because it takes away all the good things that that person …show more content…

Death had taken away the happiness and joy that my mother would have had to not only see my sister one last time, but also my two other brothers that had not made it there yet. Nagel has opened my eyes to the fact that we may be sad to see love ones pass away, but to them it is so much more a devastating thing to them because they are the ones leaving us behind and would give anything to just have one more day, one more hour, or even just two more minutes to say goodbye to a loved one before they …show more content…

Epicurus says: “Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore, a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality.” (p.103) What he is saying is that since death is nothing, it should make your life more enjoyable and to live in the here and now and not worry about the hereafter. He also argues this point: “Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer.” (p.103-104) When you are alive death does not matter to you because you are breathing and living, even when you are on your deathbed you are still here, still alive so death does not matter. And once you are gone, death still doesn’t matter to you because you no longer exist as a person so the fear of death is a foolish thing to have. This is a big difference between the two philosophers on their outlook on the nature of death. For myself, I tend to agree far more with Nagel’s writings because of my personal experiences from last year and from what I saw as my mother’s life vanished wanting just one more

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