
COMMENTS
MEANING OF
LIFE, FEAR OF DEATH AND PHILOSOPHY
We can play with death and say that it is to «stop sinning
suddenly», or that «the fear of death is the most unjustified of
all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's
dead», as
Albert Einstein
said.
We can proclaim
to ourselves, as
Epicurus
did, that we shouldn’t worry about
death because «when we are, death is absent, and, when death is
present, we are not any more». Or agree with Socrates, when he
argues that «if death doesn’t involve sensations, then it is as
a dream and as a marvellous present».
But, against
all the logical arguments we may produce, we can’t help but fear
it. We can’t truly ignore that «hidden tiger, ambushed and ready
to kill the unwary». We fear death,
even if the reasons aren’t exactly the «dread of something after
death» in «the undiscovered country from whose bourn no
traveller returns» as enunciated by
Shakespeare's Hamlet.
We can handle
death as an accident, «revealing our deep desire to deprive from
death all its necessary element, thus making it just an
accidental event», as said by
Sigmund Freud. We can look for aid in
religion and in God: «He who believes in God doesn’t die» (St.
John). But, even then, we can’t truly ignore it.
Death is part
of our conscience. In a sense, it’s a «cause of madness», as
said in the Bible, in
Ecclesiastes: «This is the major evil in
all that is done under the sun: that there is a same destiny to
all. That’s why the heart of the sons of men is full of evil.
And madness is in their heart while they live: that they all go
to the dead». Death represents the destruction of «our unique and precious
treasure: our I» (Morin).
We may argue,
as
Saint Augustine did, that death is a passport to a better
life, near God, and that we shouldn’t cry. Maybe Saint Augustine
didn’t cry at his mother and son’s death (as he said he did in
his Confessions), but he couldn’t help avoiding
the pain and interior tears, or avoid feeling the anguish
despite his faith and his creed. We
can’t «forget death».
Death is, in
fact, a crucial existential question. Death is at the heart of
many of our meditations about the meaning of life. It’s part of
our conscience, and a direct emanation of our intelligence. «In
endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth
utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation» (George Santayana).
Most animal
species simply ignore death. Their memory, intelligence and
degree of consciousness do not allow them the insight of death.
Only we have a
total knowledge of it, with the correlative degree of
hopelessness, pain and fear.
See also:
Fear of death: quotes, philosophy
and meaning of life
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