How Do Stoics View Death?

Question

How do Stoics view death? The question is one of the most practical in the philosophy, because the fear of death is, in the Stoic diagnosis, the root of much of the anxiety and servitude of human life — and the Stoic account of death is the discipline that removes it.

Quick Answer

The Stoics viewed death as an indifferent: neither good nor evil in itself, because it does not belong to the soul and is not in our power. Death is the natural completion of life, and the person who has lived well has nothing to fear from it. The Stoic practice is the meditation on death: the daily rehearsal of mortality (memento mori) that gives life its urgency and the present its fullness. Marcus Aurelius states the practice: "You may leave life at any moment. Have this freedom in your mind, in your acts, in your thoughts." Seneca states the acceptance: "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it" — and the person who has lived each day as a complete life has already died well. The Stoics also held that the voluntary death is sometimes the right choice: when the conditions of a good life are no longer possible, the wise person may leave, as the diner leaves the banquet when the dinner is done.

Historical Wisdom

The Stoic view of death descends from the Socratic conviction that no evil can happen to a good man, and it was developed through the whole history of the school. Zeno of Citium, the founder, held that death is an indifferent; Cleanthes died by his own choice, refusing to return to eating after his illness, in the tradition's most famous demonstration of the doctrine; and the Roman Stoics made the meditation on death the center of their practice. Seneca returned to the theme constantly in the Letters, and his own death — ordered by Nero, faced with complete composure — became the paradigm of the Stoic death. Marcus Aurelius practiced the meditation daily, especially during the wars on the Danube. The tradition's conviction is that the fear of death is the fear of an indifferent, and that the person who has understood this is free — free to live, because the boundary of life no longer terrifies.

Philosophical Perspectives

The Stoic account of death has three components. First, the classification: death is an indifferent, because it is not in our power and it does not belong to the soul. The good and the evil are in the soul — virtue and vice — and death, like health and wealth, is between them. This is why the Stoics could say that death is "nothing to us": not because it does not happen, but because it does not touch the only thing that matters. Second, the naturalness: death is the completion of the natural process, and the person who has lived in agreement with nature accepts the completion as the harvest is accepted. The Stoic image is the banquet: the wise person eats with gratitude, and when the dinner is done, leaves without clinging. Third, the practice: the meditation on death is the discipline of life. The awareness of mortality gives the present its fullness — "the present is all that you can lose," as Marcus wrote — and it removes the two thieves of life: the fear of the future and the neglect of the now.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Seneca: "Rehearse death; the person who has learned to die has unlearned to be a slave." From Marcus Aurelius: "You may leave life at any moment. Have this freedom in your mind." From Epictetus: death is an indifferent — "when the hour comes, depart quietly." And from the tradition: the meditation on death is not the fear of death but the fullness of life — the person who has faced mortality is the person who is free to live.

Practical Application

The Stoic practice of death has a concrete form. The daily meditation: reflect, briefly and regularly, on mortality — "I may not live to see the evening" — and let the reflection produce the two fruits of the practice: the gratitude for the present and the preparation for the end. The preparation: live each day as a complete life, so that death, whenever it comes, finds nothing unfinished — the work done, the love given, the accounts settled. The acceptance: when death approaches, for oneself or for a loved one, meet it with the recognition that it is the natural completion — the indifferent that does not touch the soul. And the refusal of the fear: the fear of death is the fear of an indifferent, and the person who has understood the doctrine is free of it. The practice is the daily rehearsal that Seneca recommended: "Rehearse death, and you will have unlearned the fear of it."

Quotes

Marcus Aurelius states the freedom: "You may leave life at any moment. Have this freedom in your mind, in your acts, in your thoughts." Seneca states the practice: "Rehearse death, and you will have unlearned to be a slave." And the Stoic classification is stated in the tradition: "Death is an indifferent — neither good nor evil, but the natural completion of life."

Related Questions

• What Is Stoicism? — the philosophy behind the view.
• What Is Memento Mori? — the practice of the meditation.
• How to Accept Death — the wider wisdom on mortality.
• What Is Death? — the philosophical exploration of the end.