To Die is to Gain

As Hellenic school of thought developed over time, Heraclitus proposed a vision of demise in which the brain of the virtuous populace was reunited with an "ethereal fire" and man became united with Logos, or the principal of reality (McClean and Aspell 54). Death was to be venerationed only by the individual who had trod a "d declareward" or un clear path through physical life. Democritus also believed that the righteous man should non fear death, because in his case the soul would remain alive when the body died (McClean and Aspell 78). Socrates wrote extensively of death and its meaning, commencement his discussions with an affirmation of the importance of seeking the Good; sentenced to death, Socrates accepted death as preferable to dishonor, suffering death for the sake of true statement (McClean and Aspell 109). Plato and Aristotle, in their different ways, believed that death should not be feared, though each recognized that the unrighteous man would naturally fear this inevitable and inescapable sack (Ferm 93-97).

Later still, the Epicurean Hellenic philosophers would offer the belief that "death is nothing," that immortality is impossible and therefore should not be pursued, and that fear of death renders life miserable and should be avoided (Ferm 120). Death, to the Epicurean, is merely the dispersion of the atoms that comprise man's bei

McClean, George F. and Aspell, Patrick. Ancient Western Philosophy: The Hellenic Emergence. New York: Appleton ascorbic acid Crofts, 1971.

Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1958.

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Thomas Aquinas, one of the sterling(prenominal) theologians of the Christian Church, wrote in Summa Contra Gentiles that the soul does not and cannot perish, no exit what happens to the human body (Aquinas 254). According to Aquinas, the acceptance of God and of man's own obligations to God, and the living of a righteous life in stake of the "good" volition mitigate the terror of death; more importantly, the essence of God in man, the soul, will not die. universe should, however, fear death if his life has been filled with evil and wrongful conduct; only the man who lives in accordance with God's instructions will enjoy an infinity of union with God, while the man who lives a life of sin can basically anticipate an eternity of suffering and pain (Aquinas 289-292). Thus, from the Christian perspective, death is the natural end of life and should be feared only by those men or women whose lives have been focused on the commission of sinful acts.

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