he is going to die either way but he doesn't want to take the medicine right away. Rational mindset is fine and all but he has only 2 months left and the way he is acting would have been fine if he was a healthy person.
The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire