Philosophers and Suicide

[de_budding]

Suicide, all the time but, I don't know enough about the world to be able to commit to the idea and I have far too many commitments to chicken out. Existence is a ball at the moment but I could discover that your all illusions and then I wouldn't;t be having much fun.

I try to philosophize, so I guess I am trying to be a philosopher... whether I succeed or not is up to you.

[Khethil]

Originally Posted by diotimajsh

Erm, I'm not exactly clear which part of my post it is that you haven't seen but would expect to be the other way around.

If you mean that you haven't seen the attitude that philosophers are depressed, suicidal types--well, maybe that is just me. I probably shouldn't have said "a lot of people," but qualified it with, "a lot of people that I encounter." I've had people on other message boards make the assertion that philosophers tend to be bitter and prone to suicide, I've had friends imply or say as much outright to me during conversations, and particularly therapists seem to think that past philosophers tended toward the suicidal. But yes, this is all just drawn from personal experience--I certainly can't cite any published works that make this claim.

I read your post fully, but apparently didn't sufficiently delineate which aspect to which I was referring. You got it right in your first response (the one quoted above). I just hadn't heard that this was a 'tendency', so to speak.

[Khethil]

... as far as a general notion. To me suicide does one thing only: It removes any chance for my future or happiness getting any better. As such, in my mind, I couldn't ever justify it.

I've heard it said that for some people, the pain of living becomes too much. I could see this 'pain' (depending on rather terrible circumstances) getting unbearable, I'm just not prepared to remove any positive future potential I might have.

[Aedes]

A slight tangent is that one philosopher, Albert Camus, felt that the question of suicide was absolutely central to philosophy. In fact he felt that the question of "why do we bother to live" is the fundamental philosophical question. He writes about this in the Myth of Sisyphus, which everyone should read.

[de_budding]

Thanks Aedes, I've added it to my 'to read...' list.
Dan

[Justin]

Isn't everyone somewhat of a philosopher? There are many philosophers who go unknown but doesn't everyone embrace a philosophy or philosophize at some point? Wouldn't that make each and every human being on earth a philosopher?

[Aedes]

Originally Posted by Justin

Isn't everyone somewhat of a philosopher?

Well, everyone is somewhat of a photographer, somewhat of a writer, somewhat of a dancer, somewhat of an athlete, etc, if one does normal and common activities from time to time. But I think the word 'philosopher' needs to connote more specificity than this.

[Professer Frost]

Aedes,
Could you give us a definition of “philosopher”? There is the easy etymological one i. e.
“anyone who loves wisdom” but perhaps the definition should be more complex than that? (If this is off topic my sincerest apologies to everyone!)
- A. Frost

[GoshisDead]

Originally Posted by Justin
Isn't everyone somewhat of a philosopher?

Philosophy is simply a meta-dialogue about (X).... Just being Human makes one a philosopher, and just understanding your own mortality/existence abstractly forces one to think about suicide at some point. So yes I am a Philosopher and Yes I have contemplated suicide.

[Aedes]

Originally Posted by Professer Frost

Aedes,
Could you give us a definition of “philosopher”?

I spend a lot of time on photography forums, and this comes up all the time with the word "photographer".

The word "philosopher", like any other "-er", can mean different things in different contexts. The word can refer to professional philosophers, and amateur philosophers, in which the difference mainly connotes degree of training and seriousness of the work -- but the difference is inherent in the qualifier (amateur vs professional) rather than the word 'philosopher'.

I think the word itself probably boils down to a self-conscious, self-identified interest in philosophy and a pursuit of this interest. To use the label philosopher for everyone who says 'everything happens for a reason' or 'the grass is always greener on the other side' is so generic that the label loses value.