Introduction
Death, the cessation of life for a living organism, has always been controversial both in the social circles and the realm of science. From the standpoint of the former, people ‘celebrate a life well lived’ during the funerals, but mourn and cry as a result of the ‘loss.’ This confusion similarly ripples through the realm of science with philosophers divided on whether death is evil or not. All sides of the divide have put up strong postulations which, nonetheless, reveal obvious holes or logical shortcomings that have been widely challenged. However, they remain the only existing premises and cornerstones for evaluation of death in itself as a phenomenon, and whether it is a normal end of life or evil. According to Silverstein (401), the common-sense, or the popular opinion is that death is among the major evils that can befall a person at the twilight of their lives. In particular, most people would easily give in to this, even if they were not willing to, in such extreme situations as when they have to endure excruciating pain from terminal illnesses among other circumstances. Apparently, the holes previously hinted can be seen in this popular opinion. The justification, rather, the example given in this case implies that people would only admit that death is evil under duress. Similarly, it is not clear whether the ‘excruciating pain’ aspect of death is what makes people consider it evil. To this end, it is important to note that the question focuses on ‘death itself’ and not the ‘companions’ like ‘pain.’
It is the ‘death itself’ element in the question that makes this paper take a contrary opinion to the ‘popular opinion.’ In my opinion, therefore, while death may be mysterious, it is a natural progression to life that no one escapes. I think this gives a reason for life and reinforces people’s ability to recognize that they only have one life to live, love, enjoy and engage in fully. Every moment on earth is unique and a chance to marvel at all that life has to offer, therefore, and that perfect happiness and joy can be achieved notwithstanding the trials, tribulations and the associated pain that people experience from time to time. I feel that death should not be feared, but treated as a natural and rational transition and finish to a life that has been lived. While taking this position, however, the discussion will first present a counterargument to this thesis statement as a means of providing a window into the subsequent supporting arguments that build on the thesis statement. The counterargument will draw from the positions of Anthony Brueckner and John Martin Fischer, and Thomas Angel among others as the supporting arguments explore Socrates’s position.
The counter argument: Death is evil
Regardless of the side from which one seeks to answer the question, it is agreeable that life is all that a living organism has and its loss is the greatest of devastations they could experience. Anthony Brueckner and John Martin Fischer unequivocally consider death an evil. Brueckner and Fischer (215) evoke Parfit’s claim that will be illustrated below to corroborate their perspective. Parfit (165-166) claims that people are more concerned about future pain than with pain experienced in the past, even if the magnitude of both pains are similar. It is somewhat challenging to find a correlation between Parfit’s claims and the claim that death is evil since there is nothing like the imagined agonizing experience of being dead. If this was true, then it could be justified to fear death and castigate it as evil. In light of this, Brueckner and Fischer expound their premise beyond Parfit’s claim.