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Death, Nonexistence, and the Existence Requirements

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Submitted By ercaderk
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George Hammond
Intro to Philosophy
May 4, 2014

Death, Nonexistence, and the Existence Requirements

The existence requirement is the first premise of an argument based on the writings of Epicurus designed to oppose the idea that death is bad. The premise states that something can be bad for you only if you exist. In an attempt to revise the existence requirement so that it is acceptable, but does not conclude with death being bad for you, Kagan introduces a modest and bold version. The modest version states that something can be bad for you only if you exist at some time or the other, while the bold version states that something can be bad for you only if you exist at the same time as that thing. Kagan accepts the modest version, since it allows death to be bad for you even though you don’t exist at the same time as it occurs.
Kagan then introduces a problem with accepting this version. If we also accept the deprivation account, which states that death is bad because it deprives us of life, we assume that the more years taken off a potentially long life, the worse death becomes for that person. When we simply eliminate this life altogether, however, it is not bad at all, since the person never existed.
In this paper, I’ll address the badness of death (or lack thereof) and the situation of nonexistence, and how these relate to the existence requirement. I will also argue that death is not actually bad on the basis of the invalidity of the deprivation account. I will then examine both the modest and bold version of the existence requirement. Finally, I will argue in favor in the bold existence requirement. In addition, I will show that Kagan’s scenario is both inaccurate and invalid, and does not cause any problem with accepting the modest existence requirement.
First, I would like to discuss nonexistence and death. There are three states of nonexistence I

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