Sam Sheffler (NYU) Fear, Death, and Confidence @ Rutgers March 14, 2013

Samuel Scheffler
"Fear, Death, and Confidence"

This paper considers what attitudes it is reasonable to have toward the prospect of one’s own death. Against Epicurus and Lucretius, it affirms the reasonableness of fearing death. At the same time, it discusses -- and expresses qualified sympathy for -- Bernard Williams’s view that death gives the meaning to life. Although it develops a position that differs from Williams’s in important respects, it argues that our deaths are necessary if we are to retain confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the reasonableness of fearing death, our confidence in our values depends far more on our confidence in the survival of other people after our deaths than it does on our confidence in our own survival. In fact, personal immortality would itself undermine such confidence. What is necessary to sustain our confidence in our values is that we should die and others should live.

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