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Oct 23
opinion 6 comments challenge: Philosopher
DanielMarkwood's picture
DanielMarkwood

Philosopher prompt



I chose from the list the topic of should we fear death. The answer I reached was that we should only fear death enough to keep us alive. Because we as people vary in our fears, my answer cant be direct. There must be a healthy balance between fear and its opposite. This balance is necessary so that we don't act recklessly and also don't live in constant anxiety as if we might as well be dead. Thus the answer to should we fear death is nuanced, a straight answer would be flawed. I resolve that my response to this is that we should fear harm, not death. While death itself is inevitable, in our culture we disregard it. It's painted in our culture but also rather in our time as the worst of all things. Assuming such is false as it happens to everyone and is essential to life. While people now fear death above all else, this wasn't always the case. Not too long ago, the world was more in touch with their mortality, Virtues as honour, and heritage meant more than life itself. In the medieval mind, loyalty cost more than life, and betrayal was the worst of any crimes. This leads to a widely moral people despite the great injustices of their age. When culture turns as ours seems to have towards self-preservation as a central idea we lose a great virtue that made us great.
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Posted: 10.23.20
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Comments

  1. Yellow Sweater
    Oct 23, 2020

    This is really interesting, escpecially: "Not too long ago, the world was more in touch with their mortality, Virtues as honour, and heritage meant more than life itself."

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  1. DanielMarkwood
    Oct 23, 2020

    Thank you, Glad you found it interesting.

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  1. Yellow Sweater
    Oct 23, 2020

    Its so fascinating how different cultures have such different values. I was reading this book about the roman's, and for them personal glory was in itself something worthy of pursuit.

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  1. DanielMarkwood
    Oct 23, 2020

    That is very interesting, I think I remember reading something similar. At least with the romans a lot of them were stoics including the roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. To them it seemed, like you were saying that personal glory is so important that they fear little of death but more of how history will remember them.

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  1. Aden P
    Oct 29, 2020

    I really liked reading this. I think it’s a really interesting idea, and I believe you are right. Once upon a time death was almost embraced, but now it is feared and as a crime, it is considered to be the worst of all. I think, as it would seem you do, that there are worse crimes, and worse punishments. Sadly, the age in which this was believed has ended, and we are now unable to change things easily. It is definitely possible, but I question the worth. Does the effort involved in changing this match the rewards to be gotten from changing the system? I personally doubt it, but we all have different opinions and positions. I think that betrayal being the worst possible crime has many benefits, but murder being the worst does as well. It is very possible that there may be some sort of social and/or political benefits to murder being the worst crime. After saying all this, I’m not sure that murder is considered the worst crime legally, but socially in most places it definitely is. While I do not deny that murder is bad, I think that there are many things worse than death.

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  1. NiñaEstrella
    Jan 11, 2021

    This made me think. Being a person who has feared death a lot, this was a really interesting opinion. Because death is essential to life, it is inevitable, but why it is feared must be because we fear that our death will come too early, and that we will not have lived life to it’s fullest potential. Or, we are afraid of dying simply because we love life, and we love the chance to be happy. Anyway, what an amazing topic to ponder... beautiful writing.

    “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
    ― Oscar Wilde

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