The question which I shall look at for the Autumn Term part of this Take-Home Exam is: According to Kant, suicide is immoral. What is his argument for this claim? Does his theory really generate this result, when applied to the case of suicide? Why or why not? Immanuel Kant’s argument for the claim that suicide is immoral can be found in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals on page 73-74 in Practical Philosophy. The claim which Kant makes is when he starts to explain the Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative, gives us the idea that Human will is caused by imperatives. There are two kinds of imperatives: 1. Hypothetical 2. Categorical. These two kinds of imperatives are important to us knowing what is our will and duty …show more content…
A quote from Kant’s Groundwork: “Someone feels sick of life because of a series of troubles that has grown to the point of despair, but is still so far in possession of his reason that he can ask himself whether it would be contrary to his duty to himself to take his own life.” This quote is probably the main reason people commit suicide, because of a series of troubles, such as financial, personal, or familial these brief examples show that people will become sick of life because of something. Kant’s argument is to show us that he does not think that a series of troubles should lead people to commit atrocity’s such as this. Kant also goes on to speak about maxims in his argument amongst his claim. I will briefly explain the definition of the word maxim. A maxim is a subjective principle of volition, which is in accordance with duty has to produce moral action by necessity. Kant argues that suicide is not a law of nature which goes against a persons’ maxim. For example, Stuart’s maxim is to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. However when Stuart fails to complete his maxim, he doesn’t go and commit suicide, he just moves on. So, we know that if suicide is immoral then people do not have a definitive duty to kill themselves because they did not achieve what they wanted to …show more content…
The theory generates an understanding that Kant sees suicide immoral because it is not good for people, because there are other alternatives and we should not attempt the ‘easy’ option as suicide is immoral. Is suicide a case of universal law? Do we fully understand whether what it is Kant is saying? People may find it practical to understand what it is that we need to apply to our lives and we must not rule out that people may think that they will never even think about suicide. However, we live in a changing world, so does Kant’s idea that suicide is immoral and a part of what our maxim is. Kant writes on universal law: “The only question is whether this principle of self-love could become a universal law.” This statement gives the idea that suicide is an act of self-love. We only love ourselves to a certain degree and it is up to ourselves as to whether or not we carry out the act of
Timothy E. Quill in “Case of Individualized Decision Making”, described his patient Diane who was a vaginal cancer survivor, overcome alcoholism and depression. Dr. Quill diagnose her with Leukemia. He explained to Diane that the chemotherapy has only a 25% chance of survival and there were some complications involves in this process. Diane refused to take the treatment and decided to live the remaining of her life in a most enjoyable way possible, by avoiding all the pain of the treatment. Furthermore, when Diane heath condition deteriorate, Dr. Quill gave her some prescription that was primarily used to sleep assistance. He gave her information of the dose necessary to commit suicide. Diane decided to commit suicide and Dr. Quill diagnosis of death was Leukemia. Therefore, Diane did not do what she should be consider moral actions under the Kantian perspective because her maxim cannot become a universal law. Likewise, Dr. Quill did and did not did his best decision by
Kant argued that the Categorical Imperative (CI) was the test for morally permissible actions. The CI states: I must act in such a way that I can will that my maxim should become a universal law. Maxims which fail to pass the CI do so because they lead to a contradiction or impossibility. Kant believes this imperative stems from the rationality of the will itself, and thus it is necessary regardless of the particular ends of an individual; the CI is an innate constituent of being a rational individual. As a result, failure ...
The concept Kant is displaying in his work is the universal maxim. He believes in the idea of the will of every human being to be a part of the universal law. Individuals are to reflect upon their action by looking at the motivating principle behind their action. The question is would the motivation of my action be universally accepted or rejected? Kant is saying that we should look at the motivating principle behind our actions and compare that to how it would be seen on a universal level. Then ask, would we want another person to act with the same motivating principle? In all we are to act in a manner that the will of our action be a maxim that becomes a universal law.
...t it should become a universal law." In order to understand what this means, we have to discern what Kant means by maxims. Kant believed that people did certain things for particular motives, and when they did these things they were adhering to a maxim. With that in mind, we can understand the Categorical Imperative to mean that we should only act a definite way in a situation if that action would be suitable every time that situation came about. Kant later restated his Categorical Imperative to say that we should act so as to treat humanity, whether in our own person or in that of another, constantly as an end, and never as a means to an end. In other words, we should not merely exploit people in order to achieve our own goals. We should not treat them merely as objects, or tools, to be used in our own doings. To this end, Schindler's plea for mercy seems sensible.
Sullivan, Stephen. "The right to die: a discussion of 'rational suicide'." Mental Health Practice 14.6 (2011): 32-34. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Sept. 2011.
... does not withstand the argument of suicide because it challenges his theory of having the desire to live. Having a desire to live means you look forward to the good in your life and a suicidal person does not, therefore is not compatible with the desire account.
Modern philosophy stipulates that the will to preserve one’s life as long as possible is a fundamental aspect of basic logic and reason. The will to survive as long as possible is described as an innate and natural instinct of being human. Based on this philosophical reasoning, it is inherently illogical and irrational to willingly put an end to one’s life. Sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists have also condemned suicide by stating that it is associated with mental, social and physical ill-being and that those who commit suicide are not in a rational state of mind. These scientific and philosophical approaches to suicide have contributed to formally documenting suicide as a wrong, irrational and immoral act. The problem is that these approaches see suicide in a generalized manner and do not take into account sub-types and different kinds of suicide such as euthanasia for example, which is physician-assisted and intentional suicide in the case of a terminally ill patient with no possibility of recovering from his or her medical condition. Technological developments in medicin...
O'Neill, O. (1986). A Simplified Account of Kantian Ethics. Matters of life and death (pp. 44-50). n.a.: McGraw-Hill.
Kant conditionally agreed with the death penalty. He created a conception of human dignity that gave people this special value. He believed that human dignity is a person’s worth and must be respected. Hence, the death penalty is approved because respecting human dignity would require capital punishment for a murderer. Human dignity is essential and special because everyone attains it. Human dignity is based on a special kind of worth that does not vary and is a value that everyone attains equally (this equality serves as the basis for equal human rights). Human dignity is not to be confused with the usefulness of a person, their talents, values, or luck because these are all extrinsic attri...
Typically, the utilitarian recital of morality provides no strong and fast answers about suicide - each case is separate rely on its consequences. It is disputable whether a person decease is legitimately reducing the amount of suffering and/or incremental the general prosperity.
In ancient history suicide was condemned to be a morally wrong sin. Plato claimed that suicide was shameful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves. When the Christian Prohibition came into play a man by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas defended the prohibition on three grounds. These are that suicide is contrary to natural self-love, whose aim is to preserve us. Suicide injures the community of which the individual is a part of. Suicide ...
A maxim is the generalized rule that characterizes the motives for a person’s actions. For Kant, a will that is good is one that is acting by the maxim of doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. The moral worth of an action is determined by whether or not it was acted upon out of respect for the moral law, or the Categorical Imperative. Imperatives in general imply something we ought to do, however there is a distinction between categorical imperatives and hypothetical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives are obligatory so long as we desire X.
... the evidence changed in his later works). He has been widely criticised for his use of official statistics, which are open to interpretation and subject to possibly systematic misreporting, and therefore may not represent the true pattern or rates of suicide. It is also argued that he was confused between the distinction between egoism and anomie, and that he failed to substantiate his claims of the existence of altruism and fatalism; this is argued to such an extent that it has even been suggested that there is only one cause of suicide (egoism) that Durkheim could claim to be true. However, whilst acknowledging some of Durkheim’s own contradictions or confusions, some sociologists have gone on to develop and substantiate the ideas that he developed, and there is no denying that his study of suicide is a far-reaching and legacy-building work of substantial value.
Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly. Committing suicide probably sounds like a foreign idea to most people, but to the people who think about it, they deal with it every day. More importantly, the question is what leads people to kill themselves? In general, most people do not want to actually kill themselves, even though many people joke about it on a daily basis. Being human, we all have a certain amount of will to live.
Deathly acts such as murdering, homicide, and genocide are acts that are associated with anger, pride, and even jealously, but none compare to the actions of suicide which are associated with sadness, grief, pain, that encircle and bound the victim, such so that he cannot see a way out. Furthermore, suicide is cause by many factors; some aspects are detectable, while others are not. In addition, suicide are caused by many elements including; emotional, physical, and psychological (genetics) they are also different in retrospective to age and gender. Lastly, there are many reasons and aspects to suicide, and while others are easy to tell why, others are not.