The Fear of Death

Long ago Lucretius, dour poet of disillusion, bewailedthe fear of death. It is not clear that he was ever himself possessed by it, but it is perfectly clear that his altogether sound arguments against it have not abolished its operation, nor its effect on human character, society and imagination. Fear, which made the gods, made also the immortality of man, the denial of death. What its unmistakable traits may be has never been articulately said, perhaps never can be said. Most of us never may undergo the fear of death; we undergo comfort and discomfort, joy and sorrow, intoxication and reaction, love and disgust; we aim to preserve the one and to abolish the other, but we do not knowingly undergo the fear of death. Indeed, it is logically impossible that we should, since to do so would require an experience of death such that we should be conscious of being unconscious, sensible of being insensible, aware of being unaware. We should be required to be and not to be at the same instant, in view of which Lucretius both logically and wisely advises us to remember that when death is, we are not; when we are, death is not.

Um texto de Horace Kallen de 1939. Continuar a ler aqui.