‘For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, is now perished. Nor have they any more for ever a portion in anything that is done under the sun.'
For it is while they are alive that men have hope, for life is still ahead, even if the quality of life expected is not what it could be. In contrast the dead have no hope. Thus a living dog with its pitiful life (the mangy dog scavengers who live wild in the towns and countryside, the lowest of beasts - 1 Samuel 24:14) is better than a dead lion, which while alive is the proudest and most fearsome of beasts, but once dead is just a corpse.
The living have knowledge. They know for example that they will die (I will die therefore I am?). But the dead do not know anything. They do not even have the reward of being remembered. Everything about them is forgotten, their love, their hatred, their envy, their good deeds, their bad deeds. All is forgotten. And they have no part or portion in anything that is under the sun. They have left it all behind. Death is the ultimate end.
So he tells men that it is better to be alive and looked down on (as a dog) rather than dead and being honoured (as a lion), because the living at least have consciousness.
Thus the conclusion is that God treats all alike while they live, and all die in the same way and finish up a blank. This is the philosopher's view.