Platońska i epikurejska filozofia śmierci

Our attempts to answer the question about the sense of life are determined by the fact that we are mortal creatures. This led to the formation of two essential opposing philosophical attitudes towards life and, consequently, two philosophical attitudes towards death: the former is identified with Plato, the latter with Epicurus. The Platonic attitude is based on the hope that human life goes beyond worldliness. In that attitude, earthly life is supposed to be a preparation for eternal life, and philosophy becomes mainly meditation on death. Principally, such an attitude has been adopted by all currents of Christian thought. The Epicurean attitude is based on the conviction that human existence has only an earthly dimension. In this attitude, earthly life is supposed to be lived as if every moment was infinitely long. Such a life becomes a finite sequence of moments which are lived in an infinite dimension. Consequently, philosophy is not reflection on death, but meditation on life. Such an attitude has been adopted principally by all varieties of materialistic philosophy and atheistic existentialism.