Comments | contride: Fear not death, by Gary Hayden

contride

Fear not death, by Gary Hayden

Nov 17, 2008 03:43

I had this article tucked away in my bag for months. I think it is really worth sharing so I typed it. Your thoughts?

Four fears
According to the American philosopher Tom Morris. there are at least four kinds of death. First there is fear of the process of dying. Here death itself is not the problem, but rather those last hours and minutes as life ( Read more... )

Comments 7

aikidrake November 17 2008, 04:36:18 UTC

The Japanese samurai code also held tht one should be resolute about death and come to terms with it. There was this parable is which a master samurai sparred with another guy and exclaimed that he must be a master given his fighting skills. However, the other guy refute this saying that he is not that proficent in sword play just that he had become resolute about death. This was achieved by sleeping with a katanna suspended by a thin thread over his head every night.

contride November 18 2008, 01:10:42 UTC

spins a literal meaning to having your life hang by a thread!

easycoy November 17 2008, 11:38:09 UTC

your post made me sad. =(

contride November 18 2008, 01:17:10 UTC

oops.. Hugs! :)

contride November 18 2008, 01:31:45 UTC

as morbid as it sounds, to learn to die, is to learn to live..

entropic82 November 18 2008, 06:00:57 UTC

Seems to me that the article focuses on the fear of one's own death..

So.. How would you imagine the philosophers respond to the following fear:

The fear of death of the loved ones?

The b4, the during & the after of such an (unfortunate) event?

contride November 18 2008, 12:44:07 UTC

Fear of death of loved ones, the way I see it, is the fear of lost. Fundamentally, it evokes a different set of thoughts, emotions. The attitudes to confronting an ailing loved one and the ebbing away of one's own life is vastly different.

When someone you treasure is passing on, you fear because you cannnot comprehend how long more he has, and possibly, how much more pain he will have to suffer. The fear stems from an imminent, impending lost. (In a more Christian context, you might fear if he was not "saved" before he dies.)

On the other hand, if it were you to face the end of your life, you are likely to be much more absorbed into wondering what might possibly lie on the road ahead, if at all there is any. Yes, the above mentioned fear of uncertainty of how much longer you have and how much more suffering you have to endure still applies, but now this is probably just a subset. For me, my fear would probably be more of annihilation and punishment.