Long Time Gone
One thing is certain: we will all be dead a lot longer than we ever were alive.
Thus, it might seem strange that we spend so much energy on the quality of our lives; we might do better to spend it on the quality of our deaths.
Montaigne said, “the ceaseless labor of your life is to build the house of death.” Hmmm…
Perhaps we give so little attention to the quality of our experience after we’re dead because we won’t be around to experience it. Why should I care if things suck when there’s no possibility of having to deal with it?
But as Aristotle points out in the Nichomachean Ethics, we do consider it possible for the quality of a person’s life to change even when they’re dead.
Imagine that you successfully devote your life to coming up with a cure for the common cold, and as a result, are acclaimed as the most brilliant inventor of your day. You are heralded in all the media and your name is made legion. After you die, though, it is discovered that your “cure” causes a rare and particularly virulent form of cancer. Thousands die as a result of your life’s work and you are vilified for centuries to come by anyone who hears your name.
In such a case, you didn’t really lead the life you thought you had led, so even though you’re not around to be made aware that everything you worked for was an abject failure, we might say what you took to be a happy life wasn’t so happy at all.
One way to guard against such a possibility could be to reach out to as many people as possible in your life and help make their lives a little richer. Then, even if it turns out after your gone that your life did suck, there will at least be some other lives that were made better by your having lived.
Thus, it might seem strange that we spend so much energy on the quality of our lives; we might do better to spend it on the quality of our deaths.
Montaigne said, “the ceaseless labor of your life is to build the house of death.” Hmmm…
Perhaps we give so little attention to the quality of our experience after we’re dead because we won’t be around to experience it. Why should I care if things suck when there’s no possibility of having to deal with it?
But as Aristotle points out in the Nichomachean Ethics, we do consider it possible for the quality of a person’s life to change even when they’re dead.
Imagine that you successfully devote your life to coming up with a cure for the common cold, and as a result, are acclaimed as the most brilliant inventor of your day. You are heralded in all the media and your name is made legion. After you die, though, it is discovered that your “cure” causes a rare and particularly virulent form of cancer. Thousands die as a result of your life’s work and you are vilified for centuries to come by anyone who hears your name.
In such a case, you didn’t really lead the life you thought you had led, so even though you’re not around to be made aware that everything you worked for was an abject failure, we might say what you took to be a happy life wasn’t so happy at all.
One way to guard against such a possibility could be to reach out to as many people as possible in your life and help make their lives a little richer. Then, even if it turns out after your gone that your life did suck, there will at least be some other lives that were made better by your having lived.
posted by Professor Dave at 6:07 PM
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