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This video was recorded at YALE PHIL 176 - Death with Professor Shelly Kagan. This is the first of a series of lectures on suicide. Two very distinct contexts are presented in which the subject can be further explored. The first is rationality and the question of under what circumstances it makes sense to end one's own life. The second is morality and the question of whether we can ever ethically justify resorting to suicide. The lecture's focus is on the rational requirements of suicide, and Professor Kagan introduces a number of cases which demonstrate that ending one's life, in certain instances, may be rationally sound. Reading assignment: Hume, David. "On Suicide." In Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary. Brandt, Richard. "The Morality and Rationality of Suicide." In Moral Problems. Edited by James Rachels. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Resources Figures 24.1-24.4 [PDF] David Hume, "On Suicide" Courtesy of David Banach, St. Anselm College http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/suicide.htm#A1

Disciplines:

• Humanities  / Philosophy