Death is nothing
I will explain why death is not an experience that should be feared. Fear of death affects lives in a negative manner. For example, the act of carrying a firearm for self defensive purposes actually increases the likelihood of being shot. I assume death is a state of non existence, with no consciousness. The soul is material and dies with a person.
Epicurus as an empiricist, he made use of his senses to form judgements about the world around him. "Get used to believing that death is nothing to us. For all good and bad consists in sense experience, and death is the privation of sense experience.” Epicurus contends that the nature of death is that of annihilation. The living cannot experience annihilation, since experiencing annihilation is death. Death is not harmful for the living. An experience can not be bad for a person if they don't exist. A person who experiences frequent pain from a permanent injury, will not feel pain or any discomfort. The dead do not exist. Consequently, death is not harmful for living people nor the the dead.
Epicurus believed that the soul provided locomotion to the body as well as created facial expressions and the like. Here is a simplified materialistic argument that lends credence towards this claim. The soul and body can causally interact if souls are material. Soul and body do causally interact. Therefore, souls are material.Epicurus thought an argument claiming the soul was immaterial, or as he said: “incorporeal,” made little sense because something that was of the void could neither act or be acted upon and the soul both acts and is acted upon (Letter to Herodotus, 67). Soul is an argument for not fearing death. As people die they are without locomotion, their bodies decay and their bodies are devoid of warmth. The material soul must dissolve and disperse with death and leave the body frigid and cold. The body cannot hold itself together. Epicurus was an atomist, he would argue that all the
Epicurus as an empiricist, he made use of his senses to form judgements about the world around him. "Get used to believing that death is nothing to us. For all good and bad consists in sense experience, and death is the privation of sense experience.” Epicurus contends that the nature of death is that of annihilation. The living cannot experience annihilation, since experiencing annihilation is death. Death is not harmful for the living. An experience can not be bad for a person if they don't exist. A person who experiences frequent pain from a permanent injury, will not feel pain or any discomfort. The dead do not exist. Consequently, death is not harmful for living people nor the the dead.
Epicurus believed that the soul provided locomotion to the body as well as created facial expressions and the like. Here is a simplified materialistic argument that lends credence towards this claim. The soul and body can causally interact if souls are material. Soul and body do causally interact. Therefore, souls are material.Epicurus thought an argument claiming the soul was immaterial, or as he said: “incorporeal,” made little sense because something that was of the void could neither act or be acted upon and the soul both acts and is acted upon (Letter to Herodotus, 67). Soul is an argument for not fearing death. As people die they are without locomotion, their bodies decay and their bodies are devoid of warmth. The material soul must dissolve and disperse with death and leave the body frigid and cold. The body cannot hold itself together. Epicurus was an atomist, he would argue that all the