Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Well, it's not relativism for me.

"For me..."

Thought you'd be interested in seeing a portion of the response I got from Mr. ____. who asserted that I had a nerve suggesting that a depressed person who wants to commit suicide is, by definition, in an unreliable mental state.

I offer it as an example of the kind of thinking that has created our current situation: a philosophical relativism that is so intellectually impoverished it is incapable of knowing its own name.

I do not doubt that there are many individuals all over the world who have made a full recovery from varying levels of depression, and have proceeded to live happy and fruitful lives. This may well include those who have been very close to taking their own lives. For very obvious reasons, it would be impossible to ever determine whether or not any sufferer had made the 'right' decision to commit suicide if indeed this was their chosen course of action.

However, what of the man who dies (for this example, we shall say of natural causes) a very sad and lonely man, having lived as such for most of his adult life? Yet, he has been persistently advised that to take his own life would be to admit defeat, would be the wrong thing to do, that things can improve for him - Would he have been so wrong to pull the plug in earlier life, saving himself years of an utterly miserable existence in doing so? Would he have been of 'sane mind' to take such action? I think we both know the true answer.
Actually Sir, I'd venture to guess only one of us does.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hilary, why did God create stupid people?

Anonymous said...

without entering the debate on the substantive issue, note how your liberal corresondent arrogantly assumes that his view is so plainly self evident that you must of course with it

Aaron Traas said...

BillyHW,

It's a consequence of the fall, and an opportunity for us to get some time out of purgatory.