Is It Bad to Die? A Desire-Based Account of Death’s Badness

Epicurus’ argument against the badness of death has been a frequent subject of refutation. The most popular response has been by appeal to counterfactual theories of harm. However, this kind of response gives rise to numerous problems that do not seem to be easily solvable. I will argue for and develop a non-counterfactual desire-based account that does not give rise to these problems. In particular, I will argue that death is an atemporal harm that frustrates one’s voluntarily acquired categorical desires.