To Be or Not to Be ??? Hmmm, That is a Good Question. (Shakespeare, Vol. 27, pp. 29-72)

Death, and what happens to the soul after death, is one of the great mysteries of life.  Philosophy, religion, science, anthropology, sociology, law, and almost every other discipline has grappled with the mystery of death.  And the uncertainty of what happens to a being after death.

Hamlet says it much more eloquently, but sometimes life really sucks.  And if we knew that if we could just go to sleep and not exist anymore, wouldn't we be better off? Who wants to put up with the pain that life sometimes brings?

                            [A]nd by a sleep to say we end 

                            The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

                            That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation 

                            Devoutly to be wished.  To die, to sleep; To sleep?

                            Perchance to dream.  Ay, there's the rub.  [Act III, Scene I]

What is the rub?  The point is that we must respect those things we do not [and can not] understand.  And Hamlet says that "conscience does make cowards of us all," and that sometimes we put up with this life because we fear the unknown more than we fear the difficult things we do understand.  While Hamlet died in the end, he endured a lot of tough times because he feared the alternative unknown of suicide.

Socrates also considered death as he sat in his cell waiting to be put to death.  In the Apology, he argued:

Now if you suppose that [in death] there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. [Vol. 7, p. 211]

Both Hamlet and Socrates agreed that if death were nothing but an endless sleep, this would not be a bad thing.  Would we act differently if we knew what happened after we die?  Do religious people act differently because they believe in an afterlife?  Do they live life more or less fully?  And the same for nonbelievers?

The unknown nature of death, and our beliefs about the nature of death, affects the way we live.  The theme of death and the way it affects the way we live weaves its way throughout the great books.  I look forward to learning more about it as I continue my journey through.