The question of this volume
Many people think: "It's fine to kill an animal for food, as long as it doesn't suffer." To answer that, we need a more basic question: is dying bad for the one who dies?
Epicurus: death wouldn't be a harm
The Greek philosopher Epicurus, who lived more than two thousand years ago, had a famous argument: "While I exist, death isn't here. When death arrives, I no longer exist. So we never meet." For him, death wouldn't harm anyone, and there'd be no reason to fear it.
Behind this idea is another one: that the only way to be harmed is to feel something bad. Since you feel nothing after death, death wouldn't be a harm.
The answer: death takes away what's good
The opposite view says there are two ways to be harmed:
- when something bad happens, like pain;
- when we're kept from having something good.
If pain is bad in itself, it makes sense to say that losing good moments is also bad. Death harms because it takes away all the good that was still to come.
How to tell if dying is bad for someone
According to this view, we have to imagine what the person's (or the animal's) life would be like if they kept living. If that life would have more good things than bad, dying is a harm. If it would be only suffering, dying might even be better.
In short
- Epicurus said death doesn't harm, because after it you feel nothing.
- But we're also harmed when we lose good things.
- Death is bad because it takes away the good future of the one who dies.