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What Is Nagel's Objection To Death

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Thomas Nagel concludes that death has no value. Nagel argues that if death is an indefinite end of our being, is it a bad thing? For which he gives two standpoints. One of them being how death strips us from life, which has human beings, is all we have, so it would be a significant loss. The other point being, that death is empty, it is the end of an issue so it is not entirely a great loss. There is nothing is nothing and no one to feel the loss. He goes on to explain how death is only an assumed evil because of what is denied us which is life. Nagel says that life in itself is valuable; when one takes it away good and bad all that is left over is life no matter its experiences. The benefit of life doesn’t mean survival; there is no attraction in surviving a …show more content…

Nagel then states that being dead is not evil; it’s not what makes death unpleasant. You cannot gain anything from death once you are dead. We do not view the period of time before we are born as a great catastrophe. Thomas Nagel gives three possible objections and three replies. The first objection being, anything that causes dissatisfaction can be an evil yet how can the end of life be evil if no one is dissatisfied. Second, once someone is dead there is nothing left, so who is there to suffer? Third, if the time before we were born wasn’t horrible how can the period after death be? His replies to these objections are as follows. The experiences of a person whether they are bad or good can depend on their history, not just the current state there in. So a horrible thing can happen to a person without them being there

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