110
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
I think you have the logic of this backwards. In theism (and some other religious doctrines) life continues after the death of the physical body. They believe euthanasia is a negative act that can ...
- 18.5k
84
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
I think it's important to note that in cases where this is considered, death is already approaching. It isn't a choice between life and death. It's a choice between dying now or going through a few ...
- 661
33
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
I have personally known two friends who, when faced with incurable cancer, elected to end their own lives at a time and in circumstances of their own choosing.
Both made this choice when it was ...
- 7,770
23
votes
What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
In purely psychological terms, all the behaviours that keep us alive are controlled or driven by the unconscious brain. That is, most of the time, we don't need to reflect on the course of actions ...
- 6,238
22
votes
Accepted
Does the focus on "humane" killing of animals distract from the real moral problem of killing?
"The focus on whether an animal is killed with or without suffering seems to only distract focus from the much more serious moral issue of whether or when it is morally okay to kill in the first ...
- 2,961
19
votes
Accepted
Is there an ethical basis for killing less intelligent animals (as food) but not killing animals of higher intelligence?
Our assessment of the intelligence of animals is not the dominant factor in determining why some animals are more often killed for food than others. Culture, tradition, practicalities and economics ...
- 13.5k
18
votes
What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
However, it takes nothing of these moments after death, so it would be the same if they had never existed. Suffering, on the other hand, inflicts pain on it, which it has to endure during its lifetime....
- 324
16
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
Where's the illogic in preferring (1) not to exist to (2) existing and suffering in agony? It's true, from an atheist standpoint, that after euthanasia I will not know that that I have ceased to exist ...
- 35.4k
14
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
Atheists supporting euthanasia might argue the following:
Death is inevitable.
Living simply for the sake of trying to avoid death is illogical.
Death is timeless / infinite.
Dying tomorrow instead ...
- 5,598
10
votes
Is willful ignorance about one's own mortality escapism?
Actually the whole business of living other than the animalic part, is denying death.
So the idealism you are seeking by not denying death is itself a denial of death.
[I]
The human animal is ...
- 650
10
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
Death is inevitable.
Dying in indignity and pain is not.
If you have never experienced the indignity of lingering, painful death I understand why you would not see what is wrong with your relative ...
- 209
10
votes
What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
OP's question sounds similar to the argument for nihilism. If we don't take anything with us, what's the point of living at all? Let me offer the following observation.
I propose that Nihilism has it ...
- 201
10
votes
Is life the root cause of all suffering?
According to Buddha's Theory,
It is not a theory; it is large set of traditional philosophy, world-view, precept or partly religion.
The word "theory" implies that there is something here ...
- 1,992
9
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
In addition to some excellent answers I would question a fundamental part of your question that assumes there is a hierarchy from the atheistic point of view. Death is not seen ubiquitously as better ...
- 191
9
votes
Is life the root cause of all suffering?
"Desire" is one possible translation for "tanha" in Pali. But other translations would be "thirst" or even "craving". I think "craving" is more useful ...
- 2,402
8
votes
Accepted
Was Socrates of the belief that knowledge was attainable after death?
The answer lies in the Phaedo, not much after the passage on suicide, to which you referred. The issue of suicide arises in the context of the question, put to Socrates, why he seemed to favor death, ...
- 7,311
8
votes
Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering?
These are my neccessary and sufficient conditions for suicide. I'm a two-pronged atheist (Any Holy Books are non-predictive, inconsistent nonsense; the Standard Model is the best description of ...
- 181
7
votes
Is willful ignorance about one's own mortality escapism?
This question takes it for granted that fear of death is a logical necessary thing. However, there is nothing that is more clearly a product of evolution than fear of death. There is no deep truth ...
- 1,352
7
votes
What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
First, you are treating Joy and Suffering asymmetrically.
You don't take anything with you. Your Suffering and your Joy are gone.
Using Joy as a proxy term for "anything good" and Suffering ...
- 594
7
votes
Is there an ethical basis for killing less intelligent animals (as food) but not killing animals of higher intelligence?
Humans hunt everything and anything. Some animal species however don't have many individuals left, so we try to protect them. In some countries hunting is used to balance an ecosystem that is not ...
- 2,232
7
votes
What can make death not a bad thing?
Firstly, the quote you cite is nonsensical sophistry of the worst sort. You might just as well argue that if you can perfect the next five minutes then death would be harmless, since extending a ...
- 13.5k
6
votes
What is the philosophical significance of the First Law of Thermodynamics?
The Law states that “no energy can be destroyed or created..."
Not quite. In its classical formulation, the 1st law says that energy is constant in a closed system. As this isn't entirely true, it ...
- 1,808
6
votes
Does the focus on "humane" killing of animals distract from the real moral problem of killing?
In Buddha's time, the prohibition was against killing, and not eating meat, and even monks were allowed to eat meat donated to them as alms. That's still how they do things in Tibet, where a small ...
- 20.5k
5
votes
Source for (Stoic?) quote on death/(im)mortality
Your quote is attributed to the Greek general Xenophon. It's written in "Lives of Eminent Philosophers" by Diogenes Laërtius:
In this battle Epaminondas also fell. On this occasion Xenophon is said ...
- 51
5
votes
Accepted
How can death be a release from pain?
Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences no sensations, and that which has no sensation is nothing to us.
The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in ...
- 2,401
5
votes
Can nominalists believe in their own death?
I don't think there is a problem for nominalists here. I take nominalism to be the view that there are only individuals or particulars - concrete things or signs of concrete things, particular objects,...
- 35.4k
5
votes
What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
The instinct to live is primal in every lifeform, expressing as mastery of environment and basically power.
Mastery of environment is the base drive. Once it is operational, survival follows without ...
- 5,258
5
votes
What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
An important point that contributors so far have not raised is that we survive because of an inbuilt (i.e. subconscious) mechanism to survive. Any species that lacks this property can expect ...
- 637
5
votes
Is life the root cause of all suffering?
Yes, but only in a fairly boring and trivial way. Any experience requires an experiencer, without life there would be nobody to experience suffering, hence there would be no suffering.
But there ...
- 297
4
votes
Movies on philosophy similar to "Waking Life"?
Waking Life is somewhat sui generis, but I would highly recommend "The Possibility of Hope," a documentary by Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron, included as a DVD extra with his incredible Children of ...
- 27.2k
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