Hellenistic Epicureanism
One of the fundamental beliefs of Epicurus is that death is something that is not to be worried about. This, along with three other main beliefs, is the key to finding individual happiness according to Epicurus. Epicurus believes that death is merely the end of existence. It is nothing to be concerned about because it is simply the end of sensory experiences. Once dead, a person is no longer aware of his surroundings, and he possesses an absence of life. It is based on this idea that Epicurus explores the idea that death is in fact nothing. In The Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus explains, "The fact that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life a matter for contentment, not by adding a limitless time [to life] but by removing the longing for immortality.... So death, the most frightening of bad things, is nothing to us; since when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist. Therefore, it is relevant neither to the living nor the dead, since it does not affect the former, and the latter do not exist". Epicurus argues that death should be put out of mind for the simple fact that it does not exist during life. A person cannot be in a state of death a
Another argument that Epicurus makes is that "That which while present causes no distress causes unnecessary pain when merely anticipated.... But the many sometimes flee death as the greatest of bad things and sometimes choose it as a relief from the bad things in life". Many people are so strongly terrified of death that they avoid even mentioning it. Death is something that people try to put off as long as possible. Some people toil over thoughts of dying before it is their time. According to Epicurus, these types of thoughts are absolutely unnecessary because death is insignificant. He suggests that one should not put himself through the troubles of worrying about his death when the actual occurrence of his death has no trouble associated with it. As Epicurus also observes, many people choose death as a relief from the bad things in life. He notes the irony in the fact that death is feared as the most horrific of bad things, yet people choose this most horrific of events to replace all of the other bad things in their life. While this may not have been as prevalent in the times of Epicurus, it is most certainly a more than common occurrence in modern society. People who are overwhelmed by the pains in life will take their own lives. Suicide has become the "easy way out" for many people that are merely fleeing from the problems that plague their lives. Like Epicurus says, it is chosen as a relief from the trouble that is one's life. Death is a topic that not many like to speak of. Some fear that speaking of it will bring some sort of bad luck, while others do not like to deal with the emotional implications of death. Epicurus, on the other hand, felt that death is nothing more than the end of sensory experience. The statements that Epicurus set forth have both their merits and their downfalls. While some of his ideas are quite practical and can still be applied in the modern day, others are very impractical. For example, one of the main components of Epicurus' thoughts is that all that is good and bad is a matter of sensory experience. While this may be true of breaking a limb or smelling something pungent, there are many things that a person can experience that are much deeper than a sensory experience. Death, for example, is not an experience that is completely sensory. There are many emotions involved with death, and it is much deeper than a purely physical sensory experience. For this reason alone, it is very hard to accept the fact that death is onl
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Approximate Word count = 1683
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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