Immanuel Kant's view on Suicide

A detailed Summary of Immanuel Kant's view on Suicide

In Immanuel Kant's writing, Good Will and Duty, he argues that suicide is immoral. He has many reasons why it is immoral, and they stem back to his beliefs on life. He believes in the categorical imperative and it has a few unconditional commands. One of them is respect life. That alone should tell that suicide is immoral. Also, he believes that it is an unnatural act, and it can't be universalized.

The reasons behind this position do fall consistent with his views of moral autonomy. Moral autonomy is basically following a set of laws. There are many kinds of laws; examples are man-made laws and natural laws. Man-made laws follow the natural law in some ways in that they are the basis for society. But, the way people are, if the laws are not written down, some will not follow them, and then there would be complete chaos on society. Here is an example of how suicide does not break the code of moral autonomy:

There is a college student who is a freshman and is very depressed. Now this has been going on for a few years previous. But they have graduated and are in a new social environment and setting. They are away from home for the first time for a long period and they are making decisions that will impact the rest

Also, Kant implies that if suicide is completed, the person will be missing out on happier times in their lives. This time period in the student's life is only temporary. It will not last forever. After some time, the wounds that were opened will be healed. Then new things will come along. They will all not he happy, but there will some in there. Emotions are only temporary things. If they were permanent, this student would have never gotten to this point in the first place. They would have stayed in the time emotionally when they were born. There would be no change in emotions and basically no real form of life.

Finally, Kant argues that you owe it to oneself and others not to kill yourself. You owe it to you yourself, family and community not to do it at all. Suicide is like murdering another person. Everyone goes through the emotions and feeling that surround it. If the student killed himself or herself, they would put their family under a lot of hardship. They just lost someone that was close to them in every possible way. It would especially rip the parents apart because they are the ones that give this student life. The community also feels pain in that they were part of this student's life. Then they are left to think if was because if them why they killed themselves. Also, the community looses out in that they have just lost a potential worker in a certain field. Since this

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Approximate Word count = 952
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English