Ceasing to Exist and Harm Due to Loss of Vitality: A Different Approach to Metaphysics of Death

According to the Epicurean tradition, there is something misleading about our common intuition that we are harmed at death. In contemporary literature, we find proponents of the anti-Epicurean view as well as staunch defenders of the no-harm theory. In this paper, I first deal with the question of the possibility of worldly presence after death and, secondly, with the idea of harm due to death of a person. The gist of my claim is that a non-absolutistic approach to the whole problematic of harm seems to have a better explanatory power in this context. In the course of my discussion, I coin and elucidate the phrase “loss of vitality” and assert that it may provide us with a more useful notion in the metaphysical treatment of death and harm. I also distinguish two perspectives with regard to being harmed and claim that there is a notable issue about being harmed at death especially when the matter is regarded internally, in contrast to an external point of view.