This is a lecture clip from my online Philosophy of Death and Dying course.

1. Is Epicureanism a Life Worth
Living?
 Can still be motivated by their conditional
desires
 Can still disapprove of wrongful killing
 Reasonable to modify desires to make
inevitable consequences less bad for you

2. Is Epicureanism a Life Worth
Living?
 Any good reason to not die is a good reason to live.
 Epicureans must avoid desires that give good
reasons to not die.
 In doing so, they also avoid desires that give good
reasons to live.
 Must also avoid any activities that would be “too”
enjoyable.

3. What’s Right about Epicureanism
 We shouldn’t expect to live longer than a
normal human lifespan.
 Our desires should reflect this unavoidable
fact.
 As death draws nearer, we should modify our
desires so that it isn’t bad for us.

4. Summary
1. We should not be indifferent about death.
Insofar as death thwarts our desires, it is bad for
us.
2. We should not want to be the sorts of people
who are indifferent to death. This requires that
we are indifferent to living.
3. Given the inevitability of death, it makes sense
to “Epicureanize” our desires so that they can
be fulfilled within a normal human lifespan, and
conditionalized at the end of life.