Death

Most of us are afraid of death, but it doesn't make sense, says philosopher Shelly Kagan

Read more: "Death: A special report on the inevitable"

ONE of the commonest reactions to death is fear. Indeed, "fear" may be too weak a term: terror is more like it. But is fear of death a rationally appropriate response?

The crucial word here is "appropriate". I don't want to deny that many people are afraid of death. What I want to know is whether fear of death is an appropriate response.

Under what conditions does it make sense to feel fear? Three requirements come to mind. The first is that the thing you are afraid of has to be bad. I imagine that this is fairly uncontroversial.

The second is that there has to be a non-negligible chance of the bad thing happening. It is not enough that it's a logical possibility. There is, for example, a chance that you will be ripped to pieces by tigers, but it's negligibly small. If you were to tell me that you are afraid that you will die this way, then I would say that such a fear is not appropriate.

Condition number three is more controversial: you need to have some uncertainty about whether the bad thing will actually happen, or else how bad it will be. To see the point of this condition, we need to imagine a case where a bad thing is certain to happen, and you know how bad it is going to be. In circumstances like that, fear is not an appropriate response, even though the first two conditions have been met.

Suppose that every day you come to the office with a packed lunch. For dessert you bring a cookie, and every day somebody steals it. Admittedly not the worst thing in the world, but it's a bad thing. Furthermore, there is a more than negligible chance that your cookie will be stolen tomorrow. So the first two conditions are in place.

But not the third. It is pretty much guaranteed that your cookie will be stolen tomorrow. The bad thing is certain to happen, and you know how bad it is. In this case, I think, fear doesn't make any sense. In contrast, if the thief strikes at random then you might reasonably be afraid.

One other point is worth mentioning. Even when fear makes sense, there's a proportionality condition that should be kept in mind. Even if some fear is appropriate, the amount of it might still be inappropriate. When the risk is slight, mild concern may be all that is appropriate. Similarly, the amount of fear needs to be proportional to the size of the bad.

Armed with these ideas, it might seem that we are now in a position to ask whether fear of death is appropriate. However, we first need to clarify something important: what exactly are we afraid of? There are different ways to answer this question, and depending on which we have in mind, fear may, or may not, be appropriate.

One thing you might worry about is the process of dying. Insofar as there is some chance that you will die a painful death, there seems to be room for some fear. But I imagine this is not what most people have in mind. What most people mean is that they're afraid of death itself - afraid of what it will be like to be dead. In this case, I think, the conditions for appropriate fear are not satisfied. The main point here is that there is nothing that being dead is like. It involves no kind of experience at all, so it is not intrinsically bad. Thus the first condition for appropriate fear isn't satisfied. (Things might look different if you believe in an afterlife.)

Of course, I am not suggesting that there is nothing bad about death. On the contrary, I accept the "deprivation" account, according to which death is bad by virtue of the fact that you are deprived of the good that you would have if you weren't dead.

So perhaps we can specify an appropriate object of fear this way. Instead of fearing what death will be like, perhaps we should fear the deprivation of life. If so, perhaps fear of death is appropriate after all.

But that's not quite right either. First of all, I believe that immortality would not be good for us; to be condemned to live forever would be a punishment, not a blessing. So fear is not appropriate. More precisely, if what we are afraid of is the inevitable loss of life, then the object of our fear is not bad, but good, and so fear is still out of place.

However, even if immortality would not be bad, it doesn't follow that fear of death is appropriate. Appropriate fear requires a lack of certainty with regard to the coming of the object of our fear. And I know that I am going to die.

But now a different possibility suggests itself. Fear of death is inappropriate because death is certain. But what is not at all certain is when you are going to die. Perhaps, then, what we should be afraid of is not loss of life per se, but rather the possibility that we will die sooner rather than later.

Consider an analogy. Suppose you're at a party. It's great, and you wish you could stay, but this is taking place in high school, and your mother is going to call and tell you it's time to go home. Now, there's nothing bad about being at home; it's intrinsically neutral. You just wish you could stay at the party.

Suppose you know that the call is going to come at midnight, guaranteed. Then, I think, there isn't anything to be afraid of. But if all you know is that your mother is going to call some time between 11 pm and 1 am, the conditions for appropriate fear have been met. There is something bad, there is a non-negligible chance of it happening, and yet there is also a lack of certainty that it will happen. Now some degree of fear makes sense. Perhaps we have something similar with regard to death. Perhaps it makes sense to be afraid given the unpredictability of death.

Further distinctions might be helpful. Am I afraid that I will die soon, in the sense that, given the range of years I might reasonably hope for, death may come sooner rather than later? Or am I afraid that I will die young, with death coming sooner for me than it does for others? These ways of specifying the object of my potential fear differ in important ways, including how much fear is appropriate, and when.

Take the fear of dying young. Clearly, if you have reached middle age any fear of dying young is irrational. But even among the young, the chance of this actually happening is extremely small.

As one grows older, the chance of dying within a given period increases. But even here, fear that one will die soon can easily be out of proportion. Even an 80-year-old has a more than 90 per cent chance of living at least another year.

Obviously, fear that death may come soon can make sense among the very sick or the very aged. But for the rest of us, I think, it is typically misplaced. If you are reasonably healthy and yet you say to me, "I am terrified of death", then all I can say in response is that I believe you, but terror is not appropriate. It doesn't make sense, given the facts.

Shelly Kagan is a professor of philosophy at Yale University. This is adapted from his book Death(Yale University Press)