Arguing Once More Against "Death Gives Life Meaning"

Deathism is a label of convenience for any philosophy or outlook that regards death as a good thing. These worldviews also tend to be in favor of both degenerative aging and the involuntary nature of death - that we are forced to die regardless of what we might think on the subject. A deathist is someone who holds such a viewpoint. One of the more sensible comments I've seen on deathism in general is this: Such is human nature, that if we were all hit on the head with a baseball bat once a week, philosophers would soon discover many amazing benefits of being hit on the head with a baseball bat: It toughens us, renders us less fearful of lesser pains, makes bat-free days all the sweeter. But if people are not currently being hit with baseball bats, they will not volunteer for it. Modern literature about [death and the prospects for radical life extension through medical science] is written primarily by authors who expect to die, and their grapes are accordingly sour. One of the hoary old arguments put out by near everyone in favor of unavoidable death is that "death gives life meaning." The conceit here is that life is somehow meaningless until you can draw a line under it and assess, or perhaps that no-one would do anything if they didn't have a timer counting down their own personal extinction. I've never been able to grasp the essence of the first point, which just seems so much nonsense to me: why draw the line on death? Why not somewhere else? The past at any point is f...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs