Mortality

Concept · 2 readings

How does the prospect of death change a life? Do limits on survival also limit the value of friendship, understanding and shared work?

All readings

2 readings · Title A–Z

Guided course · Module 2 · Lesson 5
Mortality and the limits of achievement
Grief sends Gilgamesh in search of a way past death, and he returns to Uruk without one. Do mortal limits make achievement worthless, or change what we can reasonably ask of a human life?
Guided course · Module 5 · Lesson 25
Pleasure, virtue and what is up to us
Epicurus teaches how to choose among pleasures; Epictetus separates what is up to us, our judgments, from results that are not. Similar practical advice, the lesson shows, can rest on different views of what makes a life good.