Shane Mage wrote:
>
> Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> >...I think most people think death is a bad, in itself,
> >pre-discourse, for whomever it happens to...
>
> If that were so, you wouldn't have majorities supporting
> the right to eu[good]thanasia[death] for people suffering
> terminally painful illnesses. But why should what
> "most people think" be a standard of good or evil?
> Do *you* think the world today would be a better
> place to live in if death had been abolished (even if only
> for humans) a few thousand years ago?
>
The topic is, of course, not simple, but it seems to me best to start with fairly crude simplicities and explore/develop from there.
My simplicities.
It is obvious, it seems to me, that _being dead_ is not bad -- it's not anything. When we are dead we don't know we are dead, and hence can't suffer from it.
The death of others is, just as obviously, tragic for the living. It has been 34 years since my first wife died, and I have long been happily remarried. Her death still hurts.
Severe pain is horrible. I have a hard time imagining that anyone who has suffered severe pain (whether "physical" or "mental") can think otherwise. Hence torture is the greatest evil.
Carrol