Is death really something bad?

Abstract

Epicurean and antiepicurean positions in valuation about a status that death has for the person are analysed. The analogy between death (“the life after death”) and pre-natal non-existence (“the life before birth”) is used as a basis for an explanation of possible differences between the deprivation of values and goods in both cases. It is argued against asymmetric position that the thesis that persons do worry about the period after their death, because they will not be able to enjoy pleasures, goods, values that they do have now and that they do not worry about the period of pre-natal non-existence, because they will become alive and therefore they will enjoy the welfare of their lives is untenable. At the end the modified symmetrical thesis is exposed as an answer to the old question: should we fear before death?