In all eras, all across the world, people thought about the problem of life and death. Death has always been a mystery to humans because no one has yet returned from behind a veil, and they cannot tell about what will happen after. Many philosophers attached their meanings to death, and humanity created fundamental beliefs to explain it. Blackburn refers to an idea called the Wisdom of Silenus:
“The dead, beyond it all, are to be envied. Death is a luxury. Best of all not to have been born, but once born, better quickly dead” (Blackburn, 2021)
The idea itself sounds incredibly depressing if you do not consider the peculiarities of the worldview of the people of the past because Aristotle, born in 384 BC, first described the idea itself. When thinking about this idea, it is difficult to take any specific point of view about it because the meaning of life primarily lies in the process of a lifetime; making any goal the meaning of life is not the best idea. After achieving it, a person will be left with spiritual emptiness. Thus, one can conclude that the meaning of life lies in the process of the lifecycle itself. And given that the meaning of life means a goal, death can be considered a luxury. After all, a person is inclined to strive for luxury in connection with the ordinary human greed inherent in each.
Given the above, death is a limitation that adds color to a person’s life. After all, if people were not mortal, there would be no special meaning in life, and soon a person would write himself out, losing the motivation to live; small things and accomplishments would become less and less significant. In addition, in some cases, death is the only way to end the suffering of a terminally ill person. If this were not so, voluntary euthanasia would never have appeared.
Summarizing all my thoughts about this statement, I can conclude that it is frighteningly accurate. After all, life, for the most part, consists of turmoil and suffering, and many people spend their whole lives trying to find peace. But following this idea, vacation awaits us all at the end, and therefore we need to live as brightly as possible: achieve goals, fall in love, rejoice in general, and live life to the fullest.
References
Blackburn, S. (2021). Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (2nd ed., pp. 66-98). Oxford University Press Academic UK. Web.