Re: prison and suicide

From: Delvieron@aol.com
Date: Thu Dec 02 1999 - 20:10:55 MST


In a message dated 12/1/1999 8:31:50 PM EST, neosapient@geocities.com writes:

<< My point is that
 killing yourself (permanently) is stupid because it robs
 you of a potentially infinite amount of "pleasure points"
 (pleasure being the interim meaning of life because all
 our goals are based on the pleasure-discomfort principle,
 the carrot and the stick). Why do we think that a certain
 action or goal is good? Because it makes us *feel good*.
 Therefore, the logical thing to do is to stay alive and
 be pleasured whenever possible until you find something
 more meaningful, if there is such a thing at all. >>

It is illogical to kill oneself if you accept the following two premises:

1.) Pleasure is a sufficient reason for remaining alive.

2.) The future will not be filled only with suffering.

I think many would accept the first, but there are many pessimists or people
depressed or in despair who would not accept the second premise. Personally,
I accept both (with my own caveats and variations).

Glen Finney



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:05:55 MST