Argumentative Essay On The Nature Of Death

Death Death is arguably the most cryptic topic that a person can ponder about; a phenomenon that science will probably never be able to explain, knowing that if a person has experienced death, they’ll never have their soul returned to them. Due to that fact that humanity will probably never know what the true answer is, one cannot help but ponder about what happens to our spirit after it leaves our body. That is exactly what Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius do in On the Nature of Things and Meditations, respectively. While Lucretius believes that our spirits are made of miniscule atoms, Marcus Aurelius believes that we are all limbs of God, striving to protect the perfection of the whole. Marcus Aurelius is a stoic, and therefore believes that …show more content…
Both philosophers attempt to make the very best of their lives – despite the shared opinion that the soul will cease to exist after the body gives out – in rather different ways; but the beauty of death is that there can never be a wrong answer. Lucretius, as I said before, was a hedonist. He didn’t necessarily believe that there was a purpose for life, rather his philosophy was more like “We’re stuck in this life anyways, so might as well not obtain any pain by living it and just sail through life as smoothly as possible” and it focused on finding pleasures in the simplicity of life. Therefore, his view on death wasn’t pessimistic at all, and didn’t think that fearing death was very rational. He thinks we fear death because we are so anxious about life and are obsessed with being the very best we can in life, whether that be career-wise, being a workaholic, being as popular as you can within your community, or being the richest person the world has ever known. This can all be avoided by living life very simply and not giving in to those desires, for those desires will only bring pain to …show more content…
Lucretius also states that we fear death because we will miss what is happening on Earth and we believe that the afterlife would be a very sad place. However, he argues that we don’t miss the years we missed before we were born, so why should we miss the years after we die? This also falls on his belief that the spirit does not exist once its vessel – the body – is deceased. Since the body is a material object, Lucretius believes that only a material soul would be able to control a material body, therefore the soul must be material. This is what leads Lucretius to the conclusion that the soul is made of very tiny, colorless, invisible atoms. Once the body dies, the soul dies with it and the spirit ceases to exist, feeling nothing. This is portrayed by his quote “And as for you there, slumbering in Death, you shall be free from pain and