Kant's View On Morality And Rationality Of Suicide

Kant and Brandt had opposing views on the morality and rationality of suicide. Kant’s argument is that suicide is always wrong. His definition of suicide is that there is always motivation by the desire for pleasure and to avoid some pain. He says that it is about the intention. A suicide is defined as killing yourself in order to avoid pain or because of lack of pleasure. He also states that not suicide, then when there is a rational duty and not pleasure. Kant used two different arguments to explain it. First, religious argument against suicide. He argues that is not for us to choose the time of our death. We are put here for a reason and we have to fulfil that reason. If we kill ourselves, we are abandoning our job. Second is the …show more content…
Kant says that the religious law is not useful for ethics. He thinks that religion teaches you bad ethics. Religion tends to focus on things that are not ethically important. In other words, you do right in order to please God and do not do bad in order to avoid upsetting God. This is just self-interest and this is unethical. Another argument that he uses is that if God exist then God is good. Then God commands what is good. Kant strongly rejects the religious argument because he thinks that those are not the real argument. Suicide is when we take our life with the intention of avoiding or ending pain. Kant states that these are ethically wrong because it is irrational. It is the use of reason to destroy reason and it is the use of our bodies as a tool for avoiding pain and archiving pleasure. Since suicide in Kant’s view is an act of desperation and not a calculated one, it is therefore an irrational action and not a rational one in the sense of self-preservation to oneself. Again, Kant believed that as human beings living rationally, as we want to continue to live and not intentionally try to kill ourselves, is a perfect duty. Then, any attempt at suicide is against …show more content…
He stated that suicide can be rational and ethical because there is a time when it can be acceptable. There are two things that are really important to notice. First, suicide will harm the state, our friends, our family and other people. For the suicide to be rational, we do have to take into account what harm we are doing to others. Second is a future life. Here, suicide is rational when you are able to imagine the future to see if your life will be worse than it is today. The unique argument that Brandt gives us is that we have an obligation to our future self. When a person has a terminal disease and decides to terminate with their life, Brant is agreeing with their decision.
He conveys that this is perfectly rational and ethical. Brandt also discusses Kant’s view that suicide is wrong on the grounds that there is a self-contradiction involved in employing the free will in its own destruction. Brandt denies that there is any contradiction in self-regard leading us generally to self-preservation and to self-destruction only under certain