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In these arguments presented by Lucretius, he was attempting to prove to people that the mind or soul does not survive death, and because it does not survive death, people should not fear death. Overall, the first argument that presents the case of why the mind does not survive death is the most important one Lucretius makes in Bk. 3 of “On the Nature of Things.” In analyzing the individual premises of the argument, some require at least a little explanation in order to reinforce their soundness.
The first premise is a simple statement presenting the notion that disease and pain are the primary causes of death. This is primarily evident when looking at the causes of why individual creatures often die. Healthy humans are generally not the likely candidates to experience death; but rather, it is usually due to some sort of inflicted wound, suffering from a heart attack or a virus/bacterial infection that causes the individual to die. One can logically take from this that these various diseases and pains that are inflicted upon humans are the primary causes of their deaths.
Premise 7 is another conditional with the antecedent being premise 6 and the consequent being the ultimate conclusion in the argument, that we do not survive death. Ultimately, this premise builds off of much of what Lucretius presented in Bk 1, noting that the only 2 things that made up the universe were matter and void. Thus, using Lucretius understanding of the universe, the soul must be made up of tiny atoms, similar to those that make up the body albeit miniscule in comparison. With this understanding, he purports that these tiny atoms exit the body after it is deceased and upon exiting the body they become subject to the forces of nature. Since we have established that the soul is mortal and subject to the various illnesses that the body also falls ill to, it makes sense that the mind/soul will also decease once it has lost the protection it used to receive from the body. Therefore, once it becomes proven that the mind is mortal, then it can logically be assumed that once it is free of its bodily protection it will decease almost immediately.
The first premise is a simple statement presenting the notion that disease and pain are the primary causes of death. This is primarily evident when looking at the causes of why individual creatures often die. Healthy humans are generally not the likely candidates to experience death; but rather, it is usually due to some sort of inflicted wound, suffering from a heart attack or a virus/bacterial infection that causes the individual to die. One can logically take from this that these various diseases and pains that are inflicted upon humans are the primary causes of their deaths.
Premise 7 is another conditional with the antecedent being premise 6 and the consequent being the ultimate conclusion in the argument, that we do not survive death. Ultimately, this premise builds off of much of what Lucretius presented in Bk 1, noting that the only 2 things that made up the universe were matter and void. Thus, using Lucretius understanding of the universe, the soul must be made up of tiny atoms, similar to those that make up the body albeit miniscule in comparison. With this understanding, he purports that these tiny atoms exit the body after it is deceased and upon exiting the body they become subject to the forces of nature. Since we have established that the soul is mortal and subject to the various illnesses that the body also falls ill to, it makes sense that the mind/soul will also decease once it has lost the protection it used to receive from the body. Therefore, once it becomes proven that the mind is mortal, then it can logically be assumed that once it is free of its bodily protection it will decease almost immediately.
