Williams Point Of View Of Death

The question is often asked is living for eternity better? Williams (1973) discusses this question in his work, Problems of the self. Speaking of the famous opera by Karel Capek, the immortal life of ‘EM’; EM lives for 342 years and ends life due to the reality of immortality. Most of us view death as bad or evil, as something to fear. Both Bleshaw and Scarre question that the irrational fear we hold about death may be linked to religion, the sacredness of life or something that won’t happen to us. However Nagel (1991, p.1) points out that death is not a bad thing stating that ‘if death is the unequivocal and permanent end of our existence the question arises whether it is a bad thing to die. Many of us dream of immortality and conjure up notions

This epicurean phrase renders the fear that we hold of death irrational. It is saying; that while we are alive, death is irrelevant and when we die, we no longer exist, so the question arises why do we worry so much about dying? Most people view death as bad or evil but again this raises questions as to why we view death this way. Is it because some think life is sacred, does it have religious connections (Bleshaw 2005) or is it because we think death is something that happens to others and not us (Scarre 2007)? One cannot simply say that death is good or bad as we are not dead, we can say that death is possibly bad for those who have lost a loved one but we don’t know if the one who has died views death as good or bad, because they no longer exist. No one wants to die prematurely or painfully. However what defines a death as premature? Is it a death at the prime of one’s life, taken suddenly and unexpectedly? Or is it dying before a certain age? Trying to answer these questions just seems to raise more questions. Maybe Williams is right in saying that ‘...death is nothing to us and does not matter at all’ (1973,

The leading lady EM takes an elixir that renders her ageless and immortal, she lives for 342 years. At this point in her life she views everything as joyless, she is bored, indifferent and cold. She feels she can no longer live the immortal live and refuses to take the elixir thus ending her life, this elixir is then destroyed much to the protest of many. What Williams is highlighting here is that immortality is not all that wonderful. Who would want to live a joyless life? Who wants to be bored, indifferent and cold? And why would we want to live our lives without those we love that have long since passed? Therefore immortality seems worse than being