When you kill yourself, you forfeit the right to control your own story.
People don’t have that right, in general. Except in the technical ‘might makes right’ sense employed by some tyrants.
The implied claim seems to be that it is more morally acceptable to disrespect individuals who kill themselves (beyond the specific criticism of the particular decision). I have nothing but contempt for that claim and so obviously don’t consider it to belong in this thread.
Uh… what does this mean, and how is it a rationality quote?
I mean, when you kill yourself, you become dead, and thus unable to do anything, including, but not limited to, “control your own story”. But that’s a trivial fact.
Part of the cost of suicide is that you will have less control over how people remember you than if you had lived longer. The word “forfeit” implies that we should feel no obligation to respect the memory of people who kill themselves.
When someone dies we might feel a moral obligation to follow their wishes. Suicide, when the person was not in great pain, should nullify any such feeling.
The word “forfeit” implies that we should feel no obligation to respect the memory of people who kill themselves.
It says more than that. It implies that there is an obligation to respect the memory of people and that said obligation no longer applies if they kill themselves.
Justin Peters in Slate.com in an article about Aaron Swartz.
People don’t have that right, in general. Except in the technical ‘might makes right’ sense employed by some tyrants.
The implied claim seems to be that it is more morally acceptable to disrespect individuals who kill themselves (beyond the specific criticism of the particular decision). I have nothing but contempt for that claim and so obviously don’t consider it to belong in this thread.
Uh… what does this mean, and how is it a rationality quote?
I mean, when you kill yourself, you become dead, and thus unable to do anything, including, but not limited to, “control your own story”. But that’s a trivial fact.
Is the quote meant to say something less trivial?
Part of the cost of suicide is that you will have less control over how people remember you than if you had lived longer. The word “forfeit” implies that we should feel no obligation to respect the memory of people who kill themselves.
When someone dies we might feel a moral obligation to follow their wishes. Suicide, when the person was not in great pain, should nullify any such feeling.
Well, in that case: that’s dumb.
It says more than that. It implies that there is an obligation to respect the memory of people and that said obligation no longer applies if they kill themselves.