As with most (all?) questions of whether an emotion is rational, it depends on what you value and what situation you’re facing. If you can save a hundred lives by risking yours, and there’s no less risky way nor (hypothetically) any way for you to save more people by other means while continuing to live, and you want to save lives, and if fear of death would stop you from going through with it, then it’s irrational to fear death in that case. But in general, when you’re not in a situation like that, you should feel as strongly as necessary whatever emotion best motivates you to keep living and avoid things that would stop you from living (assuming you like living). Whether that’s fear of death or love of life or whatever else, feel it.
If you’re talking about “fear of death” as in constant paranoia over things that might kill you, then that’s probably irrational for most people’s purposes. Or if you’re not too attached to being alive, then it’s not too irrational to not fear death, though that’s an unfortunate state of affairs. But for most people, generally speaking, I don’t see anything irrational about normal levels of fear of death.
(Keeping in mind the distinction between believing that you are not too attached to being alive and actually not having a strong preference for being alive, and the possibility of the belief being incorrect.)
As with most (all?) questions of whether an emotion is rational, it depends on what you value and what situation you’re facing. If you can save a hundred lives by risking yours, and there’s no less risky way nor (hypothetically) any way for you to save more people by other means while continuing to live, and you want to save lives, and if fear of death would stop you from going through with it, then it’s irrational to fear death in that case. But in general, when you’re not in a situation like that, you should feel as strongly as necessary whatever emotion best motivates you to keep living and avoid things that would stop you from living (assuming you like living). Whether that’s fear of death or love of life or whatever else, feel it.
If you’re talking about “fear of death” as in constant paranoia over things that might kill you, then that’s probably irrational for most people’s purposes. Or if you’re not too attached to being alive, then it’s not too irrational to not fear death, though that’s an unfortunate state of affairs. But for most people, generally speaking, I don’t see anything irrational about normal levels of fear of death.
(Keeping in mind the distinction between believing that you are not too attached to being alive and actually not having a strong preference for being alive, and the possibility of the belief being incorrect.)