Is death good or bad?
>There is a dispute between Thomas Nagel, who says that death is always an evil, since continued life always makes good things accessible, and Bernard Williams, who argues that, while premature death is a misfortune, it is a good thing that we are not immortal, since we cannot continue to be who we are now and remain meaningfully attached to life forever.
Looking for good nonfiction and fiction, mainly nonfiction, books on all things death.
How can I know happiness without sadness?
>Is death good or bad?
Neither, its a certainty.
>>8032236
Certainties can be good or bad.
>Is death good or bad?
Neither, but it is necessary.
>>8032238
The point being it literally dosent matter if you think its good or bad. Work with the reality of it the best you can.
>>8032247
It's important to discuss because of the pursuit of immortality, including that of current technological development. It's also important in theology.
>And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
>>8032259
>taking scripture out of context
>not to mention from the one chapter thats practically an acid trip
And we'd be better off without immortality, there's too many stupid people on this planet so we dont need to keep them any longer than we have to
>>8032218
>Bernard Williams, who argues that, while premature death is a misfortune, it is a good thing that we are not immortal, since we cannot continue to be who we are now and remain meaningfully attached to life forever
we cannot be who we are for longer than... several years? how often do we change our souls>
>>8032218
ultimately, death is the driver behind human creativity and progress
i have enjoyed the product of other people's creativity and progress
therefore i will say that other people's deaths have been good
I'm also interested in snail inbreeding if anyone knows any good books on that.
Death is the best thing because it makes suffering finite.
Eternal life would be neither desirable nor feasible
>>8032289
death gives meaning to life.
What about works that talk about the subject? Apology and Phaedo comes to mind, specially the latter.
There's like... a million shitty novels that talk about the afterlife if that's what you're looking for (Seven People You Meet In Heaven, The Lovely Bones, Dante's Inferno, The Book Thief &c).
Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five deals with the inevitability of death, but that's the only fiction book that I can think of that plays with the sort of themes you're talking about. There's also a billion books about grief (H is for Hawk, The Year of Magical Thinking) but I don't think that's what you're looking for.
Death does not have a choice to be or not be, therefore it is amoral
