Death

[1000bluntz]

Lately I've been reading up on existentialism, focusing mainly on the works of Camus and Sartre. During my reading, I've found myself being confronted with the infamously menacing thoughts of my mortality. Natural, right ? Who doesn't think about it ? As sentient beings conscious of our inevitable fate, it's only natural that we're visited by these thoughts every once in a while. Lately though it's been on my mind a lot more, especially after finishing The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger.

How do you accept the crushing oblivion that awaits you ?
Will you welcome the eternal darkness when you're on your death bed ? Or will you remain hesitant and fear it till your very last breath ?
How do you prepare for the great plunge into the unknown ?

 

[Inignem]

Lately I've been reading up on existentialism, focusing mainly on the works of Camus and Sartre. During my reading, I've found myself being confronted with the infamously menacing thoughts of my mortality. Natural, right ? Who doesn't think about it ? As sentient beings conscious of our inevitable fate, it's only natural that we're visited by these thoughts every once in a while. Lately though it's been on my mind a lot more, especially after finishing The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger.

How do you accept the crushing oblivion that awaits you ?
Will you welcome the eternal darkness when you're on your death bed ? Or will you remain hesitant and fear it till your very last breath ?
How do you prepare for the great plunge into the unknown ?

Who is a philosopher but an ignorant who tries to legitimate his opinions with fallacies and rhetoric?

First of all, theres nothing that a philosopher can tell you because they dont know the real world at all.

I am a system, and once this system stops working the energy will dissipate, the destiny of sll systems due to the universes expansion and thus the laws of thermodynamics. There is no void, no darkness, no heaven. You just stop existing just like you did not exist when you were not alive.

 

[DrDingo]

I don't know what death involves, but all I can do is take it as it comes. I can't stop it.
But I do want to live for a good while first!

 

[Misomie]

Lately my question is that if I were to die, how would the forums I visit know? It's like you were talking to them one day and the next you die. What if you had commissions lined up or something like that? I just wonder if people would think I died or just flaked on them. Makes you wonder if users who haven't posted for awhile just haven't visited and might return someday or if they died.

 

[1000bluntz]

Who is a philosopher but an ignorant who tries to legitimate his opinions with fallacies and rhetoric?

First of all, theres nothing that a philosopher can tell you because they dont know the real world at all.

Ha, I know your type all too well. I'm sure you and I could go back and forth for pages on this but what's the point ? It's clear you have no interest in these schools of thought so I'm going to let this slide.

There is no void, no darkness, no heaven.

-tips fedora-

Lately my question is that if I were to die, how would the forums I visit know? It's like you were talking to them one day and the next you die. What if you had commissions lined up or something like that? I just wonder if people would think I died or just flaked on them. Makes you wonder if users who haven't posted for awhile just haven't visited and might return someday or if they died.

Yup, I think about that a lot. I have a lot of friends on the internet, I'd hope my family would take care of that though. Making some kind of announcement or chat up some of my friends on Skype letting them know what happened.

I don't know what death involves, but all I can do is take it as it comes. I can't stop it.
But I do want to live for a good while first!

Nope, nobody knows. Me and you seem to take a similar approach though. I choose not to speculate life after death but rather like you said, take it as it comes.

 

[Sylver]

As I was trying to fall asleep a few months ago I decided that it was time to start seriously thinking about death, by the end of my thought session I'd come to terms with no longer existing physically or mentally after death. I don't really know how it happened, but I'm now fine with the concept of death. I don't think "Oh no in 60 or so years I'll be dead", because I do not fear what comes after death since there is nothing. If there is such a thing as heaven or hell, or some sort of afterlife that would be great, but if not I'm fine with the ending where I just cease to exist. I do want to care in my last moments, I want to care and think back on my life and recall my most glorious and horrible of memories. I want to know that I lived a fulfilling and meaningful life, or at least be happy with the choices I made.

So anyway to answer your questions:
1.) There is no real reason behind how I accept the fact that I'll just cease to exist after death. I just accept it.
2.) I'd like to think back on my life and achieve some form oh happiness from the things I've done.
3.) I wouldn't really bother preparing if I were dying. If there were some sort of afterlife after death that would be cool, but if not then I'm fine with just no longer existing.

 

[CaptainCool]

I didn't care about not existing before I was born so I probably won't care about not existing after I died^^

Personally, I see death as something entirely natural. And because of that I welcome it.
It's not like I want to die. I just don't want to live forever! Because that would be awful, sooner or later you would run out of things to do.

However, what does scare me a little is that I don't know how I will die.
Will an awful disease kill me? Will I have an accident and die slowly and painfully? Will someone kill me because he wants my wallet?
Or will I die peacefully in my sleep?

But since we don't know how much time we have left or how it's gonna happen I think it is important that we make the most of the time we have left.

 

[PastryOfApathy]

I don't really think about it. A life spent panicking over the inevitability of death is a pretty shitty life. Whatever happens happens, nothing you can do about it so there's no point in worrying so much about it.

 

[Hinalle K.]

I really don't care. I pretty much already live on a possible death sentence.
It used to, but it doesn't scare me anymore at all, now.

My only worry is getting killed before I can leave this dump. That'd just be frustrating.
I wouldn't wanna get killled over something pointless, either. Like, in a robbery or some crap like that.

 

[Fallowfox]

I don't prepare for it or thing about it, because it terrifies me and it's probably still a few decades away.

Who is a philosopher but an ignorant who tries to legitimate his opinions with fallacies and rhetoric?

First of all, theres nothing that a philosopher can tell you because they dont know the real world at all.

I am a system, and once this system stops working the energy will dissipate, the destiny of sll systems due to the universes expansion and thus the laws of thermodynamics. There is no void, no darkness, no heaven. You just stop existing just like you did not exist when you were not alive.

Obviously 'darkness' and 'void' are metaphors for not existing anymore. ._. You actually agree with this philosopher.

 

[Punnchy]

Why would I spend time trying to figure out how I'm supposed to feel or expect to feel after my biological heart stops beating and I become worm food. There's too much going on for me to be strapped down by that pointless thinking.

 

[Benji]

Viva la vida! Joder muerte.

 

[Inignem]

Ha, I know your type all too well. I'm sure you and I could go back and forth for pages on this but what's the point ? It's clear you have no interest in these schools of thought so I'm going to let this slide.




-tips fedora-




Yup, I think about that a lot. I have a lot of friends on the internet, I'd hope my family would take care of that though. Making some kind of announcement or chat up some of my friends on Skype letting them know what happened.




Nope, nobody knows. Me and you seem to take a similar approach though. I choose not to speculate life after death but rather like you said, take it as it comes.

If by my type you refer to those people who preffer to test their hypothesis in a laboratory instead of sitting in a couch to read other people's lies, then that is my type.

Just be warned, there is no possible way in which you can get sny valid knowledge by merely playing with poetry and rhetoric. Just like you can not stop your cells from growing older since the DNA is easy to modify, everything will lead to death.

One day mankind will be able to make the human life even longer, such will be the power of science, not phylosophy, not poetry.

 

[Alexxx-Returns]

I try not to think about it, which is pretty hard. If I come off the anti-depressants for too long it kind of takes me over.

I would love to be able to be less scared of the nothing, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

 

[Fallowfox]

If by my type you refer to those people who preffer to test their hypothesis in a laboratory instead of sitting in a couch to read other people's lies, then that is my type.

Just be warned, there is no possible way in which you can get sny valid knowledge by merely playing with poetry and rhetoric. Just like you can not stop your cells from growing older since the DNA is easy to modify, everything will lead to death.

One day mankind will be able to make the human life even longer, such will be the power of science, not phylosophy, not poetry.

Actually philosophy can be a useful means of deriving knowledge about the universe. Thought experiments and maths are good examples- they're not laboratory-bound.

In the case of death one of the arguments put forth in philosophy is the symmetry argument.
-I did not experience before I was live
-All current evidence indicates a conscious brain is a prerequisite for experience
-When I die I will not have a functioning brain
>I will not experience an afterlife, for I did not experience a prelife.

This is actually a sound argument, and it comes from philosophy. Philosophy is not a homogenous subject in which all schools accept 'poetry and rhetoric' as justification. In fact science itself is derived from natural philosophy.

 

[Inignem]

Actually philosophy can be a useful means of deriving knowledge about the universe. Thought experiments and maths are good examples- they're not laboratory-bound.

In the case of death one of the arguments put forth in philosophy is the symmetry argument.
-I did not experience before I was live
-All current evidence indicates a conscious brain is a prerequisite for experience
-When I die I will not have a functioning brain
>I will not experience an afterlife, for I did not experience a prelife.

This is actually a sound argument, and it comes from philosophy. Philosophy is not a homogenous subject in which all schools accept 'poetry and rhetoric' as justification. In fact science itself is derived from natural philosophy.

Yeah I get you have read Kant, but guess what, those hypothesis are based in nothing but biased opinions. What we do know of consciousness? We know that it depends of a functioning nervous system, and that if we have a more complex thought it is due to the quantity of neuronal connections and arrange of our brain. Without a brain, consciousness ceases to exist.. The rest is just poetry.

 

[Fallowfox]

Yeah I get you have read Kant, but guess what, those hypothesis are based in nothing but biased opinions. What we do know of consciousness? We know that it depends of a functioning nervous system, and that if we have a more complex thought it is due to the quantity of neuronal connections and arrange of our brain. Without a brain, consciousness ceases to exist.. The rest is just poetry.

I haven't read Kant.

The argument you have put forward is exactly the same as the symmetry argument, except you haven't proven your axiom, which is that human consciousness only exists in functioning nervous systems. The symmetry argument proves this with a thought experiment; you posit a prelife. We could also use brain damaged individuals as an example, but the prelife case is more generalised.

Not all philosophy is useless nonsense.

 

[PastryOfApathy]

Hold on, if we're gonna do this I need to pass out the proper equipment.

 

[Aleu]

The only reasons I'm not dead yet are the following:
Not sick enough
Too many things I want to do before I bite it

If I do get a terminal illness, I will make zero effort to prolong my life because it's just not worth it. Might as well get it over with instead of being some invalid sucking on someone else's resources that could be used for someone that actually wants to live.

 

[Ozriel]

I respect the prospect of death as a whole, but it still scares me. That's normal.
I still accept it as it is because it is part of the natural order. If I die, I die.
That's it.
Do not pass go.
Do not collect 200 dollars.

 

[Kosdu]

Death is a natural part of life, and should be embraced for what it is.

You can spend your life questioning and fearing death or living.


I do not fear it, and do not expect it even though I often have dreams of dying.
It helps to be healthy, have a good immune system, and be good enough at self defence and awareness that you have no reason to expect it.

 

[Inignem]

I haven't read Kant.

The argument you have put forward is exactly the same as the symmetry argument, except you haven't proven your axiom, which is that human consciousness only exists in functioning nervous systems. The symmetry argument proves this with a thought experiment; you posit a prelife. We could also use brain damaged individuals as an example, but the prelife case is more generalised.

Not all philosophy is useless nonsense.

Axiom? Are you nuts? The consciousness not existing when the brain is not alive is a medical fact, not a logical proposition. Also Kant was a philosopher who previously eposed many of the arguments that you have already used in this thread.

Too many things I want to do before I bite it

this translates as "too many posts to post in fur affinity forums before the day of finally stop posting finally arrives"

 

[thoughtmaster]

My fear isn't of death itself, but what happens after, all memory of my existence fading into oblivion. Forgotten, all who knew me dying as well, no evidence of my existence. That is truly terrifying, realizing not that you will die, but that everything you have ever accomplished amounts to nothing and in a few years, everyone forgets you have ever existed.

 

[Batty Krueger]

Everyone dies, if I die, I die and rot.
Doesnt bother me.

 

[Fallowfox]

Axiom? Are you nuts? The consciousness not existing when the brain is not alive is a medical fact, not a logical proposition. Also Kant was a philosopher who previously eposed many of the arguments that you have already used in this thread.




this translates as "too many posts to post in fur affinity forums before the day of finally stop posting finally arrives"

I've espoused but one point, the symmetry argument, which is actually sourced from Epicurus. http://www.iep.utm.edu/epicur/#SSH5g.ii

The medical fact that brains are necessary for consciousness is obvious, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum; it needs justification. Lots of people still incorrectly believe that their consciousness will continue after death in spite of their brain's destruction. It is hence necessary to justify the fact.

Philosophy appears to irritate you a great deal, and I think that's because you
-incorrectly view philosophy as a homogenous group of people who think using big words makes something true.
-don't understand the importance of the logical structures derived in philosophy in natural philosophy, otherwise known as science.

Some fields of philosophy really are demonstrably false and useless, but this doesn't mean you can haughtily accuse other philosophical arguments which are expressed correctly and scientifically of being useless by association.