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/lit/ - Literature

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7531617 No.7531617 [Reply] [Original]

Lately I have become frighteningly aware of my own mortality. I've started to suffer from mild death anxiety.

What philosophers can help me cope with mortality and the transience of life? Are there any philosophers who have made credible arguments for an afterlife or benevolent God?

Thanks /lit/

>> No.7531630

Have you considered the other side of approaching death, meaning embracing it exactly because it is an end to existence?

Maybe that's not appealing to you, but honestly after reading a lot of Roman history (pre-Christianity), the idea of a good death has really started getting under my skin. Immortality through being remembered and all that.

>“I call upon my own courage to find release from this hateful life.”

>"What will make you hold life cheap?"

(Both from Livy)

>> No.7531634

'Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences no sensations, and that which has no sensation is nothing to us.' - Epicurus

>> No.7531638

Afterlife might be the most cowardly human invention ever.

>> No.7531642

Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live. - Epicurus

>> No.7531673

Anything within the works of Epicureanism and stoicism. Epicurus himself, Epictetus and maybe Aurelius, although I didn't think Aurelius' social attitudes were at all consistent with the philosophies he preached.

Epicureanism focuses more on living a fulfilling life by partaking in simple pleasures, and allowing yourself to be complacent with just that, without pining over things you don't have or things that may be beyond your abilities to obtain. I guess it somewhat influenced stoicism, but stoicism goes a step beyond and encourages you to be complacent with whatever horrible shit happens in life, because the nature of this existence is largely beyond your ability to influence.

>> No.7531680
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7531680

Read 'Sun and Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death' and stop being a pussy

>> No.7531696
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7531696

>>7531617
Try some of these

>> No.7531705

>>7531617
how about going outdoors and doing something, I assure you you won't be having thoughts about your own mortality while having sex

>> No.7531706

>>7531638
There being consequence, order and a permanence of the self is a lot more terrifying than there being nothing my friend.

>> No.7531718

>>7531696
Thanks m8
I thought that religion was based on revelation though, and I'm not too good in investing faith into unfalsefiable systems.

I'll try those though.

>> No.7531724

Schopenhauer if you want to embrace your death anxiety.

Alexander if you want to defy it.

>> No.7531727

>>7531718
philosophy > revelation

>> No.7531728

>>7531718
All systems are unfalsefiable and rest upon axiomatic systems.

>> No.7531729
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7531729

Just don't even think abuot it mang

>> No.7531731

>>7531617
Be useful. Give reason to others to live.

There is no idea and no fact in the world that can cure the fear of death. If so - you will live inside a lie.

Only action itself can help you. Find what to do.

Read stuff to find you own way. Be inspired.

>> No.7531735

>>7531696
Great list. Highly recommend Shusaku Endo, and Augustine's Confessions.

>> No.7531749
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7531749

/thread

>> No.7531767

>>7531749
This is for edgy teens. Or egoistic assholes.

How can you say that death does not concern you, when you know that your life concern people around you?

>> No.7531775

>>7531767
It's talking about the individual. If you're dead, you won't even know there's other lives worried about your now-gone life.

>> No.7531787

Reincarnation is real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ESrd3mMop0

>> No.7531801

>>7531787
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ytD6D1r9pc

>> No.7531805

>>7531767

I think it's a pretty great argument to terminate the meaningless and unfruitful thoughts that many have regarding death. Further, I think the real egotism lies in obsessing over your own mortality and letting that anxiety influence your actual life, to the detriment of yourself and those around you.

Death, you can't do anything about that, anxiety-ridden obsession over it, you can choose not to do that.