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View Full Version : Why do humans fear death? Should we?



Barreldriver
03-28-2012, 03:35 AM
First off I know that such a question, at first glance, would seem to be more of a psychological issue more so than philosophical, however I am interested in clear logical argumentation pertaining to why humans fear death and whether or not we ought to fear death. The demands of logical argumentation and the "should we" part I believe would make this thread appropriate for the philosophy section.

Off the top of my head I do not have any syllogisms or inductive arguments prepared, however I will be working on some during this very week and in the mean time would be eager to read the thoughts of others on the subject of why humans fear death and whether or not we ought to do as such.

Strict guidelines for argumentation:

Follow the 15 valid categorical argumentation forms or present a flowing inductive argument. Please keep formal and informal fallacies in mind so that we may have a productive discussion.

SilverKnight
03-28-2012, 03:40 AM
Is part of our nature as a specie. We require fear to survive, this is how our ancestors made it and we exist today.

arcticwolf
03-28-2012, 03:44 AM
The short answer is the fear of the unknown. In other words misunderstanding reality. Death is the inescapable part of existence, fearing it is absurd. As someone said "life is a terminal illness spread sexually and the death is the cure". :p Totally seriously now, it's the fundamental ignorance of the true nature ( not the apparent one ) of reality that is the cause. Hope this helps. :D

Supreme American
03-28-2012, 03:52 AM
I can't say all cultures fear death. Religious fanatics, especially, don't seem to.

Padre Organtino
03-28-2012, 03:56 AM
I can't say all cultures fear death. Religious fanatics, especially, don't seem to.

Religious zeal actually indicates a strong fear of death and hence need to clinge on the idea of afterlife IMO.

rashka
03-28-2012, 04:04 AM
I think there is nothing after death. We would like for there to be something but the reality of it is that there is nothing. Just like there is nothing for the ant when you squash it under your foot.

arcticwolf
03-28-2012, 04:12 AM
I think there is nothing after death. We would like for there to be something but the reality of it is that there is nothing. Just like there is nothing for the ant when you squash it under your foot.

Are you sure about that? if non-existence was an option I would be the first one to sign up for it! :D But I think it's as much a wishful thinking as the existence of envious and jealous and angry and scheming God is. :p Why do you think it would end with no consequence at all, does anything you observe in reality support that theory? To me it all seems to be cyclical, nothing really ends for ever it just changes form. But! I like your theory to be true, unfortunately I don't think we are that lucky. :p

Phil75231
03-28-2012, 04:13 AM
The religious people fearing death, thus clinging to the idea of an afterlife: Not necessarily, especially if they are firm lifelong believers. In this case, death followed by a wonderful afterlife is simply the nature of things - like the sun being bright, living grass being green, etc.

As for fear of death in other aspects (whether religious or not), yes, fear of the unknown could well be a factor. However, it could also be dreading never having any more good experiences to enjoy. This is especially true if the person believes that we don't take our memories with us after we die.

I guess one way to deal with this is to live not for ourselves (i.e. living for our pursuit of pleasure alone), but to live for helping others (to the extent we don't let others take advantage of us, of course). For all we know, our good deeds could be the first link in a chain of events creating great good - a kind of temporal "Butterfly Effect". Of course the flip side of this is that any harmful or bad deeds we do could just as easily cause a great harm or evil to others after our lives have passed, again with a "Butterfly Effect".

This just goes to show you that any action of ours, no matter how small, IS important. The only question for you is whether you're gonna do the good action or bad action. Think about that for a few minutes.

Sarmatian
03-28-2012, 04:50 AM
Fear of unknown would be the first reason for fear of death.

Another reason is not so obvious. I think every man has innate sense of unique purpose in life. He has subconscious desire to fulfil this purpose. But modern society denying existence of such thing thus most often forcing people into false activities they don’t really need. As result vast majority of us are far from satisfying our purposes. We have this inner call telling us we missing something important. While we alive we have a chance to fix that. Once we dead it’s all lost.

rhiannon
03-28-2012, 05:59 AM
Death in it of itself does not scare me.

It's the gettin' dead part I'm not too thrilled about lol

zack
03-28-2012, 06:34 AM
I'm not so scared of death as I'm afraid of how i would die. If it was quick and peaceful i would probably not care at all,but if it was drawn out with cancer or something i would rather just kill myself.

If there is an afterlife and i am destined to suffer eternal torment then.... :shrug:

GeistFaust
03-31-2012, 01:27 AM
Death is something which is the source of fear, because its the complete negating of consciousness and self-consciousness. This inner angst is what is responsible for us fearing death, and since humans react positive generally to that which brings them pleasure death represents a loss of this pleasure.


That is man can not repeat that sensation or feeling of pleasure when he is dead, and man fears the negation of his desires and passions. This is because his desires and passions become an integrable part of his instincts, and thus a part of his very nature and being. This being is negated in death, and its my belief that man always yearns or hopes for this sensation of pleasure to continue for an eternity.


Christianity has done an effective job at making man believe that man must desire to negate his desire in order to achieve higher levels of pleasure in a next life. I think this is a ridiculous notion, but it seems to give some people in this life a feeling of meaning. Its meaning though is void and anthromorphized to death, until the abstract value of such a dogmatic assertion loses its value completely.


That said many desire to over-indulge in pleasures in order to block out this constant feeling of death, which looms subconsciously over us. This just creates suffering, while claiming that one needs to suffer in order to reach higher levels of pleasure in the next life actually causes one to instinctually look to pleasures.


That is mankind can not resist the urge to anthromorphize things or laddle abstract imagery or imaginary worlds with the content of his pleasure necessities. Humans fear death, because all things in a sense measured by consciousness and self-consciousness, which depend on the material and physical existence of a person.


The material and physical existence of the person causes the loss of all in all, and its man desire to project pleasure for an eternity due to the deterministic nature of his brain. Man must accept his fate, and its only in looking upon his fate with indifference that he will reach a momentary release from the fear of death.

Siegfried
03-31-2012, 01:46 AM
Death is not something I am afraid of. The concept of not finishing my purpose here one Earth before I die is my problem, or, as you put it, my fear.

Phil75231
03-31-2012, 03:23 AM
Geist seems on the right track here.

I think it highly revealing to contemplate this: Would a human-level AI, not programmed with a trait (or basket of traits) constituting the "Survival Instinct(s)" fear ceasing to exist as a functionable AI (which is efffectively it's death)? Also, what purpose would such an AI serve?

Stygian Cellarius
03-31-2012, 03:29 AM
Barreldriver,

I have no formal philosophic training. I hope I don't break any of your rules :p

Anyways…

Biology, and the theory of evolution in particular, is the only legitimate means of understanding a question like why do humans fear death. Most philosophic attempts to tackle this problem result in a bunch of existential detours and no satisfactory results. But yeah you're right, the "should we" part is a question for philosophy. Although, I believe that "oughts" should be informed with biological knowledge. We must understand the "why" of our behavior before we decide what we should do about it.

Humans certainly fear death. Do animals fear death? Insects? How about bacteria? Fear is a phenomenon limited to the relatively more complex life-forms, however, all biota exhibit death-avoidance behavior. So as soon as we start talking about cognitive phenomena with no analog in lower life-forms then we are either dealing with proximate or corollary phenomena and that's not good enough if we want to unveil ultimate causes.

The fundamentals of human behavior really need to be understood with the above in mind. In other words, if humans and insects exhibit death-avoidance behavior, but we experience the emotion of fear and the insect does not, then fear is just piggy-backing on something more primal that we share with our insect cousin. Our larger brains and all its multitudinous expressions are nothing more then helps in service of a core program that we share with all biota. Perhaps a small, aaaaand maybe universal, segment of DNA running the whole show?

That's a good start for now. I can't think anymore tonight, been up far too long my eyes are burning. The answer to the first question is going to be mundane anyway.

GeistFaust
03-31-2012, 03:32 AM
Geist seems on the right track here.

I think it highly revealing to contemplate this: Would a human-level AI, not programmed with a trait (or basket of traits) constituting the "Survival Instinct(s)" fear ceasing to exist as a functionable AI (which is efffectively it's death)? Also, what purpose would such an AI serve?



I think this is a mute issue, and that one can't fear something, which they are not conscious or aware of in the least sense. The great tragedy of being human is the great flux between emotions and feelings. Its our emotions and feelings, which allow us to contemplate the realities which inevitably surround us at a level other beings can't.


We understand our existence and being in a completely different context when it pertains to death in relation to the instincts of other creatures. I think other creatures attempt to avoid or resist death, because it seems to be necessarily associated with pain and loss of self.


That said they can never contemplate or feel the nature of death or have it impact the mind with such depth in relation to the self as humans can with their vibrant and conscious form of emotions.


Its basically our emotions and sensibilities, which give us the need of projecting pleasure onto a future world, or of engaging in an over dose of pleasure to evade the inevitable nature of death.


The death instinct coincides with man's constant striving and need for survival, which causes man's pleasure necessities to arise.

Stygian Cellarius
03-31-2012, 03:50 PM
Death is not something I am afraid of. The concept of not finishing my purpose here one Earth before I die is my problem, or, as you put it, my fear.

I feel the same way.

I have a friend who claims he experiences anxiety of the inevitability of death. This strikes me as very unusual since I have never felt any such anxiety. Perhaps he has been reading too much existentialism, I don't know, but I have been tossing around the idea that there may be a correlation between those who experience this general anxiety and cowardice. I only made this correlation because the two people that I know who have told me about this fear of death are both the type of guys who would abandon their fellows in war time and run away. It's just the beginnings of an idea, probably does not hold water.

My ultimate goal in life is to understand the world I live in. This is not just some interest I have, but an obsession. I have perhaps a thousand philosophy books alone that I absolutely must read. If I died and didn't get a chance to exhaust the worlds knowledge resource and exhaust my intellectual abilities in pursuit of my endeavors... that idea bothers me.

Also, I hope to produce something great one day. I do not like the idea of never having that chance due to premature death.

Bardamu
03-31-2012, 04:16 PM
Why we should fear death very much depends. If you are 87 and dysfunctional the reasons for fearing death are much different than if you are 17 with many unfulfilled interests and plans. Think, for instance, if you were Beethoven and faced early childhood death? But every healthy human being is a Beethoven to themselves. Also, often it isn't your own death being feared as much as a loved one who you will sorely miss once gone. Likely once gone you won't miss yourself nearly as much.

Introspective
03-31-2012, 05:21 PM
Ignorance.

Introspective
03-31-2012, 05:23 PM
Ignorance.

The root of all fears is Ignorance.

safinator
03-31-2012, 05:27 PM
There is once simple thing that all normal humans share in common. It is the fear of the unknown. At a young age we are afraid of the dark, sometimes at older ages we still are.
So what is the greatest unknown? Have you guessed it?
Death
Put that together, and you get the fear of death. However, once one is able to accept death, they may not fear it. Personally, I don't fear death. I'm not saying that I would go and jump off a building or whatever. I enjoy living and I would hate to die, but when the time comes I'm not going to be afraid of the cold embrace.
And if you had guessed that I was religious then you are very mistaken.

Loki
04-03-2012, 06:37 PM
Religious zeal actually indicates a strong fear of death and hence need to clinge on the idea of afterlife IMO.

Yes. It is the fear of death which drives most people to religion. They have not yet come to the realisation that this life is all we have.

The cold hard truth: when you're gone, you're gone.

I am an atheist and do not fear death.

Stygian Cellarius
04-04-2012, 11:53 PM
I've been thinking about the first question of this thread: why do humans fear death? When I think of something like this I reduce the phenomena to its fundamental parts. One of those is the "will to exist", something I have always assumed to be a positive entity, but now that I have thought on it in light of evolution I am doubting that. I just had the thought that this "will to exist" may in fact be an illusion. To be honest, I hope I am wrong on this because it will cause problems for some of my other theories, but while I think on this more I am going to post my thoughts here any maybe someone can find fault in it.

Let's imagine how this "will to exist" could manifest in the simplest life-forms and then work our way up to greater complexity.

Imagine there is an ocean that we insert a population of bacteria into.
Population encounters threat #1: pockets of high salinity.
A few bacteria change direction when they sense higher salinity content.
Bacteria with that response are selected and multiply, all others die, now all bacteria change direction when they sense high-salinity.
Population encounters threat #2: thermal vents.
A few bacteria change direction when they sense an increase in heat.
Bacteria with that response are selected and multiply, all others die, now all bacteria change direction when they sense high-salinity and an increase in heat.
Population encounters threat #3: whirlpool.
A few bacteria begin spinning backwards like a cork-screw when they sense they are being pulled.
Bacteria with that response are selected and multiply, all others die, now all bacteria possess the behavior of changing direction when they sense high-salinity and an increase in heat and spin backwards like a cork-screw when they sense they are being pulled.
Now we have 3 independently selected behaviors, none of them related in any way, but all with the same consequence: the continued existence of the Bacteria.

The process of behavioral selection repeats itself millions of times over. Genetic complexity increases, and eventually there are millions of behaviors that all just happen to allow for the continued existence of the organism, even though the behaviors were independently selected and there is no relationship between them. This perceived unity of consequence creates the appearance that all biota possess the positive attribute of having a "will to exist". The sum of behaviors that allow continued existence, perceived by an abstract generating self-conscious mind creates the illusion of the positive entity we call the "will". The "to exist" part of that compound appears when that abstract generating mind generates the negative concept of death. The "will", "to exist", and "death" do not correspond with anything in reality. They are abstractions; cognitive constructs, that only exist in our minds. There is only WHAT IS, in reality; the material entities and as they are at each point in time. Whatever language we invent to simplify the world and communicate it to one another does not mean these concepts exist in reality and in the case above, they don't.

Also, in my first post, I stated that a satisfactory answer to the question: why do humans fear death? can be revealed only in light of evolution. However, almost every one who posted in this thread appealed to either philosophy or psychology. I am saying that this is not the way to go. Does anyone want to challenge that?

Riki
04-04-2012, 11:56 PM
I personally fear much more the way I will eventually die.And In what state I will be when old.

Riki
04-04-2012, 11:58 PM
How does It feel to be Dead?
It's the same feeling as before you were born.

Caismeachd
04-05-2012, 12:00 AM
Seems Christians fear death more than atheists.

http://religionvirus.blogspot.com/2009/03/religious-people-more-afraid-of-death.html

Which is ironic because they are told to believe in a heavenly afterlife. Of course they don't truly believe in any afterlife, deep down (which is why they cry at a funeral rather than to celebrate and be happy because their loved one is in heaven), and they are dumber than atheists to boot, which explains everything.

Stygian Cellarius
04-05-2012, 12:14 AM
How does It feel to be Dead?
It's the same feeling as before you were born.

Since we recall nothing before our birth then the identity is obviously destroyed if such things like reincarnation take place. And if the identity is destroyed then for all practical purposes it is the same as being totally destroyed from our POV. Then what would be the point? To recycle spiritual energy?

Riki
04-05-2012, 12:33 AM
Since we recall nothing before our birth then the identity is obviously destroyed if such things like reincarnation take place. And if the identity is destroyed then for all practical purposes it is the same as being totally destroyed from our POV. Then what would be the point? To recycle spiritual energy?

Once you dead you dead.Period.
The only way we can make sure to "live" after death.It's trough memories,and even those will eventually die.

Stygian Cellarius
04-05-2012, 12:39 AM
Once you dead you dead.Period.
The only way we can make sure to "live" after death.It's trough memories,and even those will eventually die.

Now you are making positive claims about something you can't possibly know about. Tell me how you've come to such knowledge.

Riki
04-05-2012, 01:01 AM
Now you are making positive claims about something you can't possibly know about. Tell me how you've come to such knowledge.

No one know's.
So one goes with what one belief's.
And I don't believe in live after death.
But one thing I believe Is that Nature do not waste nothing.

Bardamu
04-05-2012, 02:07 AM
Ignorance.

The root of all fears is Ignorance.

When it comes to death everyone is ignorant .

Drawing-slim
04-05-2012, 03:08 AM
Its said that around 100 billion people have died so far on earth.
What is amazingly mysterious is that 100 billion people have seen death, 100 billion times that split second proces as one aproaches death from the last breath and glance of this world, and still we have no clue to what happens to us on the other side.

Caismeachd
04-05-2012, 03:10 AM
Its said that around 100 billion people have died so far on earth.
What is amazingly mysterious is that 100 billion people have seen death, 100 billion times that split second proces as one aproaches death from the last breath and glance of this world, and still we have no clue to what happens to us on the other side.


I think we really do though and that's why everyone fears it. Once it's up it's lights out.

Drawing-slim
04-05-2012, 03:47 AM
I think we really do though and that's why everyone fears it. Once it's up it's lights out.

Ouch, that sucks!:D

Hurrem sultana
04-05-2012, 03:54 AM
Actually i fear more the death of my close ones than my own death.If i die,i die,,but i cant handle the pain when someone close dies

StonyArabia
04-05-2012, 04:08 AM
The fear of death is the mystery behind it. However some fear it and others don't. The complex question can only be anwered in simple terms it's the uknown, however humans have tried to translate this into a spiritual langauge in order to know there is some comfort at the end sucha as a reward in uniting with God or entering hevean. In some socities there is discourgement of fear of death, especially during wars where it becomes seen as glorious and honorable as gate to enter the world of bliss especially in dying as maryter. It's all about prespective at the end.

Phil75231
04-05-2012, 06:27 AM
I think this is a mute issue, and that one can't fear something, which they are not conscious or aware of in the least sense.


The great tragedy of being human is the great flux between emotions and feelings. Its our emotions and feelings, which allow us to contemplate the realities which inevitably surround us at a level other beings can't.

Emotions and feelings don't allow us to do anything except experience the sensations of pain and pleasure (whether physical or mental). As you say later, many species of considerably lower mental capacity than our own species have emotions and feelings. Yet none of these animals ever produced a work of philosophy or even technology even remotely approaching the human level.



We understand our existence and being in a completely different context when it pertains to death in relation to the instincts of other creatures. I think other creatures attempt to avoid or resist death, because it seems to be necessarily associated with pain and loss of self.

Humans also resist death because we knee-jerkedly associate it with pain and loss. It doesn't matter that we conceive of our existence on a completely different level - if we fear pain and loss, we fear pain and loss.


That said they can never contemplate or feel the nature of death or have it impact the mind with such depth in relation to the self as humans can with their vibrant and conscious form of emotions.

Nothing to seriously disagree with here, though I reserve my right to criticize later.



Its basically our emotions and sensibilities, which give us the need of projecting pleasure onto a future world, or of engaging in an over dose of pleasure to evade the inevitable nature of death.

In the end, I think emotions and needs are inseparable. How can something be a need if you don't desire it, and how can you desire something if you don't have emotions. A stone doesn't "need" to avoid melting due to subduction back into the earth's mantle (re: plate tectonics). Nor does water need to escape being frozen. These things do not have emotions, and hence no desires, and no needs. I could be wrong, but so far, emotions and needs are a chicken-and-egg thing at most and at this point in time will say they are in the end indistinguishable. Otherwise, I do agree with the above statement of yours.


The death instinct coincides with man's constant striving and need for survival, which causes man's pleasure necessities to arise.

Lately, I've concluded that "needs" in and of themselves are the product of the nervous system. "Needs" presuppose a consciousness that can have instincts in the first place. For that reason, I say plants, fungi, any non-neurological lifeform does not really have "needs" - and to object to this is to merely anthropomorphize the non-neurological lifeforms.

For this reason, I'm compelled toward Stygian's interpretation of the matter, which much more directly addresses my central point. I don't want to misrepresent him, nor do I want to project my own views onto his words - but he appears to me to be saying that the survival instinct, will to live, etc. is simply acquired via evolution: those organisms that had it survived, those that did not died out (or their descendants did).

JamesSteal
04-05-2012, 06:38 AM
I fear being reborn after my death. Why? Because the year will be 2070 and the Eternal President will be Barack Obongo's grandson, Barack Obongo III. The future will be even more dysgenic.

Riki
04-05-2012, 07:52 AM
Well I was "dead" for almost 4 minutes.Once resuscitated I spent one week in coma.
I'm sorry to say,no light's nor Angel's.
If they hadn't been able to resuscitated me,that was It for me.
And of course that Week it's like a blank page.

Drawing-slim
04-05-2012, 08:35 AM
Well I was "dead" for almost 4 minutes.Once resuscitated I spent one week in coma.
I'm sorry to say,no light's nor Angel's.
If they hadn't been able to resuscitated me,that was It for me.
And of course that Week it's like a blank page.

Very interesting.
Tell us more of your experience.
Nothing out there!?

Riki
04-05-2012, 09:18 AM
Very interesting.
Tell us more of your experience.
Nothing out there!?

Nothing.
Perhaps If I was from the USA I would see Angels or perhaps even Alien's.:D

Drawing-slim
04-05-2012, 11:40 AM
Nothing.
Perhaps If I was from the USA I would see Angels or perhaps even Alien's.:D

Now lets be honest, isn't it heathier to live here in usa?
Seriously:D