耶鲁大学哲学公开课《死亡》22 对死亡的恐惧

这一节主题是讨论＂死亡恐惧＂．
Kafka said，the meaning of life is the fact that it ends。
面对死亡必须客观。对死亡的恐惧是个普遍现象，但哲学家说应该区分一下，到底是对“死亡本身”的恐惧还是对“濒死痛苦”的恐惧，这很有必要。
比如我，笼统地说对死亡是有恐惧的，但仔细分析发现那是对“濒死”的恐惧，对病痛的拒绝，而非对于“死亡”这一状态的恐惧。坦率地说，对死亡的状态有点“不安”是肯定的，但不是恐惧，因为毕竟我们对那里、或“不存在”有点不确定感，所以这很正常。
不过，哲学家不打算用我这种庸俗论，他依然用哲学思维来评述这一现象之“理性”、“合理”或 appropriate与否。
is fear of death a rationally appropriate response?  什么requirement ，condition， quarantee全都用上了，最后结果当然是，恐惧死亡是不理性的，但思考死亡会影响我们如何生活。
其论证过程，首先是看构成fear的三要素是否得到满足：举例proud of说明必要条件，that emotions do have requirements，一种情绪的产生需要必要条件，恐惧也一样 1，Fear requires something bad, as the object of your fear.以前已经论证过死亡并非坏事，所以不成立。 2，there's got to be a nonnegligible chance of the bad state of affairs happening, of the bad object coming to you. 3，somewhat more controversial, but for all that it still seems correct, and that's this. We need to have a certain amount of uncertainty in order to have fear be appropriate。
结论：fear is not an appropriate emotional response.
值得注意的是 One of the points probably worth mentioning in passing--even when fear does make sense, there's a kind of proportionality condition that we need to keep in mind as well.
面对死亡 anger 是否理性？答案也是否定的，因为其对象必须是有生命的，死亡没有生命，而且“它”没有做错事。
难过？也不必要，因为对比那么多没有生命的原子以及没有机会出生的人，只能对此生感到满足幸运，假如你不贪婪的话。
最后这首祷告辞表达了shelly的思想基础。比较积极，或终于积极豁达，当然是“学习死亡”的哲学家必须的结论，但面对的是大学生这样的年轻群体，也是必须考虑的吧。无论如何这些都只是一些有关死亡的讨论，而非真理。因为shelly从来不说“正确的”答案，只说是“自己的”答案。通过这些课堂也才真正理解到：哲学家，就是“理性家”，任何反应，都要有足够的理由和条件，假如没有，就保持理性的安宁。
This is from Kurt Vonnegut's book, Cat's Cradle. This is a kind of prayer that one of the characters in the novel says--is supposed to say--at the deathbed.
God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up."
"See all I've made," said God. "The hills, the sea, the sky, the stars."
And I, with some of the mud, had got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going God!
Nobody but you could have done it God! I certainly couldn't have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw [Vonnegut 1963].