This chapter, which examines the relation between rational emotion and death, considers the question of whether one's own death can merit self-interested emotional distress and investigates whether it is rational to fear death. It also analyzes the relevance of Lucretius's symmetry argument and argues that the crucial notion of an emotion being merited by its object is both puzzling and problematic.

This chapter, which examines the relation between rational emotion and death, considers the question of whether one's own death can merit self-interested emotional distress and investigates whether it is rational to fear death. It also analyzes the relevance of Lucretius's symmetry argument and argues that the crucial notion of an emotion being merited by its object is both puzzling and problematic.