Oct 23, 2014 04:06 AM
Review: Stay - A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, by Jennifer Michael Hecht
http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc...271&cn=389
EXCERPT: [...] Much of Stay is devoted to a history of views regarding suicide and the arguments that have been put forth about it from the Ancient World to the present. This history is, unfortunately, rather shallow and insubstantial, and lacks a focused theme. Too often, we are confronted with what seem like endless quotations where we are told that x said this about suicide, y said that, etc., etc. To the extent that there is a theme, it is that the Ancient world was rather mixed with respect to the morality of suicide, the medieval period was dead set against it, and the modern period has shown a greater tolerance toward it as we have given increasing priority to autonomy and the rights of individuals to choose what they perceive to be the good for them. (Note that this tolerance is not endorsement. Hecht often conflates the two.)
Hecht would have done well in her historical discussion to refer to Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. For Taylor’s communitarian position would have helped Hecht to make her argument that we owe it to others in our communities not to commit suicide lest we somehow lead them to follow suit....
http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc...271&cn=389
EXCERPT: [...] Much of Stay is devoted to a history of views regarding suicide and the arguments that have been put forth about it from the Ancient World to the present. This history is, unfortunately, rather shallow and insubstantial, and lacks a focused theme. Too often, we are confronted with what seem like endless quotations where we are told that x said this about suicide, y said that, etc., etc. To the extent that there is a theme, it is that the Ancient world was rather mixed with respect to the morality of suicide, the medieval period was dead set against it, and the modern period has shown a greater tolerance toward it as we have given increasing priority to autonomy and the rights of individuals to choose what they perceive to be the good for them. (Note that this tolerance is not endorsement. Hecht often conflates the two.)
Hecht would have done well in her historical discussion to refer to Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. For Taylor’s communitarian position would have helped Hecht to make her argument that we owe it to others in our communities not to commit suicide lest we somehow lead them to follow suit....
