Why we fear death?
There are little things that everyone is in agreement and that everyone is totally sure. One of those truths is that everyone is going to die someday, but anybody knows when and how he is going to die.
Man have been aware of this truth since the beginning of the times. Although, it seems like man have feared the death always. We have examples of old civilizations that feared of the death like the Romans. In the text, Montaigne says that the Romans didn´t say “such a one is dead”, they said instead “such a one has ceased to live”. And in our days we fear of the death too. In general, people don´t like to talk about death and if you are talking about it, we bunt us and we start talking about something different. Why we fear of death? Is the fear of death something natural of humans?
The death is something typical of our natur, it is a part of our existence. Martin Heidegger said that the death is a part of ourselves. Then, to fear death is notother thing that to fear ourselves. It seems a little irrational to fear death, because is something that we are sure it is going to happen; it is a part of us and we are living with this issue all the time. But what is really interesting for me is that besides many philosophers or other famous people in different times have thought and have written about this issue, we still avoid thinking in the death and, as a consequence, we still fear death. I ask myself, why do we fear death? Why we avoid think about this topic?
There are many hypotheses for answer this questions, and I think that the answer is a mix of them. One possible answer of the constant fear of death, is that we fear things that are unknown for us. The death is something uncertain for everybody because we don´t know the time and place we are going to die. Additionally, we can´t do anything to avoid death and we can´t choose how to die. Man have always intend to control every part of their lives, but death is something that we cannot control; death is something superior to us. Perhaps, not having control of the situation is what frightens us.
Another possible answer is that we are afraid to suffer. As we don´t know what is after death, we don´t know if we are going to suffer or not. Also, we fear suffering in the time of our death.
A third possible answer is that we fear death because of a cultural reason. Nobody knows anything of death, but we associate the death with something bad to us. In our lives everything related to the death is something scary, sad, or bad. Paintings of death are usually very dark, and we feel sad or afraid when we are seeing them.
For example, the painting Death and Life completed of Gustav Klimt, the death is represented with dark colours, while the life with yellow, red and lightly colours.
If we are listening to music related to death, we feel sad. Films about death are very sad and we suffer watching them. If we go to a funeral, there are lot of people crying and everybody is dressed in black clothes. What I want to say with these examples is that our culture (art, music, customs) has showed us the death as a bad thing; as a thing we don´t want and something that makes us suffer. But we cannot be sure of that.
There are a lot of possible answer to the question of why people fear death. I don´t know if there is an answer to this question. I think that most of the fear of death isbecause our culture has taught us that death is something bad. But also I think that if we think more about the death, if we get more familiar with the death, we are going to feel more prepare for dying anytime. As a consequence, we wouldn´t fear to death probably. Many people live tormented mind he will die, and they stop living in fear of dying. I believe that if we are not afraid of death, we can make better our lives. Fear paralyzes us, in other words, fear makes us slaves of ourselves. If we philosophe of death we are going to enjoy much every minute of our lives, we will be more free and thus, happier. Montaigne says:
“The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; who has learned to die, has unlearned to serve. There is nothing of evil im life, for him who rightly comprehends that the privation of life is no evil: to know how to die, delivers us from all subjection and constraint”
In response to "Why We Fear Death":
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis of Montaigne's text and your further inquiry into why exactly it is that we have this fear. It is a question that plagues us all at one point or another, for it does seem an unavoidable occurrence in everyone's life. I wonder, if beyond the fear of the unknown, it is also the simple idea that when one dies he or she might be forgotten, no longer actively able to contribute to the world. Whilst reading Montagne’s text, there were a couple things that really resonated with me. I liked the idea of accepting one’s fate and using one’s ultimate demise as a driving force to “seize the day”, so to speak. I find that for me, at least, it is more a fear of not leaving a significant mark on the world that motivates me to make the most of my time on earth. I do, however, believe that all the factors you mentioned play into this overarching fear of death: suffering, the unknown, and a generally negative cultural connotation.
In your response, you mention that man has no control over his death and it is this inability to control the situation which kickstarts our fear. Though I do agree with you, I think of the situations in which one does have this choice. I apologize for the morbid nature of this response, though when death is the topic of discussion it is not to be expected that it will be an uplifting one. There are, unfortunately, people who do wish to take their own lives and act on this desire. They are fully capable of controlling their fate and do have the power of life and/or death in their own hands. Do you think this would subsequently make them any less fearful of death? I would imagine that even in those situations in which one does have control over his or her own suffering and death, it would still strike a rather high degree of fear.
Beyond specific examples, I think you are altogether spot on with your inquiry and interpretation of Montaigne’s text. Montaigne is able to help the reader ask questions that are difficult to uncover but also to realize how vital it is to pursue happiness while one still can. Furthermore, understanding the existence and inevitable arrival of death is essential to fulfilling one’s life.
Thank you for your comment Emma. Sorry for not answering your comment before. I have thought a lot on your question about people who do wish to end their own lives, it is a good question to think and for me it is difficult to have an answer.
ReplyDeleteIn my post I wanted to say that there are many things that could explain the fear of the death, and I believe that the answer is different for every single person. Thus, the fact that someone wants to suicide (sorry for the morbid language) doesn´t mean that he/she doesn´t fear of death. There may be other reasons that make him/her afraid of death. In this sense, I would say that people who do wish to take their own lives, are not any less fearful of death.
On the other hand, if I think in your question in relative terms, maybe the answer is different as theone I gave you in the other pragraph. What I want to say is that people who wants to end with their lives fear to the death, but not as much as they fear to the life. They have the control over his or her death but they don´t have the control over his or her life (or they feel as if they don´t havhan e it). Then, in relative terms, they are more afraid to live than to die. But it doesn´t mean that they don´t fear death, of course they do.