The structure of logic
To explain why he was not afraid of death, Epicurus wrote "if I am, death is not. If death is, I am not."
The interesting thing about this is, if he is right, he can never know, but if he is wrong, he will know as soon as he dies.
This implies that his idea, i.e. self-awareness and death are mutually exclusive, can never be confirmed, only disproved.
To me, this speaks to the limitations of logic and reason to address questions of the supernatural, i.e. life after death, and rather than condemn logic and reason, we should instead take it as a sign that the question itself is nonsensical or absurd, even though on first glance it seems reasonable.
Your thoughts?
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3 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.It's true that self-awareness and death are mutually exclusive, can never be confirmed, only disproved.
On the other hand, to believe that self-awareness and death are not mutually exclusive,requires a premise (i.e. there is an afterlife) which has no evidentiary basis.
dare2dream
Level 7
June 4, 2018
0
Take my advice, grab a beer and chill out, i think your over thinking this
magicwatch
Level 7
May 18, 2018
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