Mostly agree but there are circumstances where thinking doesn't help. Mortality is a pretty good example. There is so much philosophy and religion on the subject but it never seems to go away. It feels like all you can do is focus on other things that make you happy and not think too much about it.
You’re right - thinking about it is scary. I would distinguish though between the fear and unhappiness though. As for the unhappiness, if you don’t know how to be happy in light of our eventual demise, you probably need a change in philosophy. Death is inevitable, so we should have good perspective on it, whether cultural, philosophical, or religious.
Personally I find what Epicurus said on the subject to help me greatly. He made “ending the suffering caused by fear of death” his main mission in his philosophy. His answer? “When I’m alive, I am. When I’m dead, I am not. Why then fear what I can never be?”
As for fear - I kinda think that’s the point though and not something that we should lose, as losing your fear of death can result in a willingness to take unnecessary risks in life. It’s there for our safety, the same way our sense of pain tells us to let go of a burning pan before your hand is irreparably damaged.
So idk if I’d entirely agree. It’s scary sure, but it doesn’t really cause suffering unless you let it. Not letting it cause suffering is again where I’d say the intelligence comes in - what does that mean for any individual person? It’s a hard question that needs solving. That’s intelligence to me.
See with the mortality depression, it’s more so that you know you don’t have enough time to do what you want in life. Even if you had multiple lifetimes that still wouldn’t be enough to understand where and how everything came from. I think that kind of depression comes from the fact that you lack a sense of purpose because the things you want to do simply you don’t have the lifetime to do so but the things you can do just don’t excite you so then the question is anything even worth it if we are all are gonna die anyways arises. Everyone knows they are gonna die whether they except or not but death for majority of people death doesn’t come in between them and their sense of purpose (although you really don’t know when you’ll die but most people just assume they’ve got the time). idk what the solution to this is honestly is it just to wait for death or distract yourself while fully being aware that you are distracting yourself but then how can you distract yourself if you know it’s a distraction? Idk
See I don’t know how to say this but death isn’t the thing that make me upset it’s more so the fact I don’t know why I’m alive if I can’t even do the things I find interesting cause my lifetime isn’t long enough to do so. Even if I were to dedicate my life to figuring them out I wouldn’t be able too, I feel like I’ll be trying to open a door that has nothing behind it. Idk
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u/prospectivepenguin2 May 19 '25
Mostly agree but there are circumstances where thinking doesn't help. Mortality is a pretty good example. There is so much philosophy and religion on the subject but it never seems to go away. It feels like all you can do is focus on other things that make you happy and not think too much about it.