philosopher, Epicurus (341-270BCE), of the Hellenistic period. He believed that attaining ataraxia, a state of tranquillity, is the ultimate goal of life and can be achieved by pursuing mental pleasures rather than physical ones. According to him, fear of death and of Gods is the primary reason for one’s troubles. One can feel mental pleasure once these fears are eradicated. He took the help of Democritus’ Atomism and modified it so as to make a solid foundation for his arguments against these fears. He
In Lucretius’s book, “De Rerum Nonturna” he presents the philosophy of Epicurus, which is the Greek philosophy from the 5th century, B.C. Lucretius’s objective was to banish one’s fear of death. Based on his theory, one should not fear death due to the fact that when one dies we are no longer living. Therefore we do not feel nor remember anything of our lives. At the time of death our body is not whole anymore. Yes, our atoms will be reborn, and they will live on forever, but our identity nor our
into Thomas Nagel’s article Death, to establish why he believes death to be bad, and arrive at the conclusion that death is not to be feared; for when you die you merely enter a state of nothingness. At the crux of Nagel’s argument, lies the claim that death is bad primarily because it deprives us of life. Nagel believes life to be all that we have, thus making life precious. As Nagel’s argument unfolds, it becomes apparent that the Epicurean argument (the belief that death is a state of non-existence