Page "Lucretius" Paragraph 10

He argues against the fear of death by stating that death is the dissipation of a being's material mind.

Lucretius uses the analogy of a vessel, stating that the physical body is the vessel that holds both the mind ( mens ) and spirit ( anima ) of a human being.

Neither the mind nor spirit can survive independent of the body.

Thus Lucretius states that once the vessel ( the body ) shatters ( dies ) its contents ( mind and spirit ) can no longer exist.

So, as a simple ceasing-to-be, death can be neither good nor bad for this being.

Being completely devoid of sensation and thought, a dead person cannot miss being alive.

According to Lucretius, fear of death is a projection of terrors experienced in life, of pain that only a living ( intact ) mind can feel.

Lucretius also puts forward the ' symmetry argument ' against the fear of death.

In it, he says that people who fear the prospect of eternal non-existence after death should think back to the eternity of non-existence before their birth, which they probably do not fear.