Atheistic Theories On The Moral Permissibility Of Suicide
The Moral Permissibility of Suicide
Student Name
HZT 4U1
Mr. White
May 31, 2013
The Moral Permissibility of Suicide
The act of taking one’s life and the absence of morality in doing so has been argued since the time of Plato. Whether one approaches the argument in a Deistic perspective or an Atheistic perspective, there are various views surrounding the argument. This essay will explore philosophers from the various periods and their theories on the moral permissibility of suicide.
Suicide cannot be definined singularily as suicide. According to the Marriam-Webster dictionary, “suicide is the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionaly especially by the person of years of descretion and of sound mind.” The act of self-killing can be caused by an accidental death, an intentional death, or an intentional death for a righteous cause. An accidental death is the instance where the individual does not intentionally take their life but do so in an unintentional fashion. For instance, if a man were cleaning a loaded firearm and accidentally sent a bullet through his skull you could not categorize the circumstance as suicide. He did not intentionally fire the weapon that sent a pellet of lead into his cranium; therefore the event …show more content…
He provided valid reasons that gave the suicidal individual free choice in taking their life. The classical philosophers Plato and Aristotle made interesting points for being the first to question the moral permissiblility of suicide but did not provide clarity and acknowledgement of the individual’s well being. The enlightenment period philosophers St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas also made valid points on how suicide was a sin towards God but was initially flawed due to the fact that the Christian Bible does not provide any statement that self-killing is a
Student Name
HZT 4U1
Mr. White
May 31, 2013
The Moral Permissibility of Suicide
The act of taking one’s life and the absence of morality in doing so has been argued since the time of Plato. Whether one approaches the argument in a Deistic perspective or an Atheistic perspective, there are various views surrounding the argument. This essay will explore philosophers from the various periods and their theories on the moral permissibility of suicide.
Suicide cannot be definined singularily as suicide. According to the Marriam-Webster dictionary, “suicide is the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionaly especially by the person of years of descretion and of sound mind.” The act of self-killing can be caused by an accidental death, an intentional death, or an intentional death for a righteous cause. An accidental death is the instance where the individual does not intentionally take their life but do so in an unintentional fashion. For instance, if a man were cleaning a loaded firearm and accidentally sent a bullet through his skull you could not categorize the circumstance as suicide. He did not intentionally fire the weapon that sent a pellet of lead into his cranium; therefore the event …show more content…
He provided valid reasons that gave the suicidal individual free choice in taking their life. The classical philosophers Plato and Aristotle made interesting points for being the first to question the moral permissiblility of suicide but did not provide clarity and acknowledgement of the individual’s well being. The enlightenment period philosophers St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas also made valid points on how suicide was a sin towards God but was initially flawed due to the fact that the Christian Bible does not provide any statement that self-killing is a