Epicurus and the Singularity of Death by David B. Suits;

Author:David B. Suits;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350134065
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

6

A Critique in Four Dimensions

Prelude

It is well known that Descartes had three important dreams one night. What is not as well known is that he might have had a fourth, and I would like to report to you what it might have been.

An angel comes to René and intones, in the best of angelic voices:

You will eventually die, and your life as a whole might not have had the richness of content, in comparison with alternative imaginable lives.

René: What do you mean, “might not”?

Angel: After your death, I will compare your actual life with a longer alternative life, and the alternative life might turn out to be full of many more, and more kinds of, good things.

René: What good things?

Angel: I can’t actually say.

René: Then why are you telling me all this?

Angel: Don’t you want to know? Don’t you even care how your life is going?

René: Of course I care how my life is going. But you aren’t telling me how my life is going. You are telling me in rather vague terms how my life might have gone after it has gone. What good is that for me?

Angel: Gosh, I just thought you’d want to know, is all.

René: I don’t see why, unless you want to give me some kind of hint about how I ought to change my ways in order to make my life be filled with more good things. That way, after my death you will make a different assessment of my life.

Angel: Sorry, can’t do that. The judgment will be about an Eternal Truth, and Eternal Truths can’t be changed, not even by Him Who Made Them in the First Place. Besides, only after you are dead will I make the judgment that you might have been better off with an alternative life. I haven’t made that judgment yet, because I don’t have all the details of your life yet, so I can’t possibly tell you how you might avoid that judgment, can I?

René: But if you haven’t yet made that judgment, doesn’t that mean that I might change my life for the better, as a consequence of which you will make a different judgment after I die?

Angel: Haven’t you been listening? Do I have to repeat everything I say? It’s an Eternal Truth, I tell you, and there’s no changing it.

René: But I still don’t see what difference it could make to me, now, what judgment you will end up making after I am dead. You say that there is this eternal truth, but you won’t have any details until after I’m dead, when it’s too late. Why should I care that something might be true to God or an angel if I can never have any knowledge of it?1 So as far as I can actually be concerned, there is no such eternal truth at all.

Angel: [Long pause.] Blasphemy!

Silverstein’s view

In a number of publications, Harry S. Silverstein argues against the Epicurean view that death cannot be bad for the one who died.2 The following will serve as an outline of his position.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.