I am wondering if any philosopher has considered the rationality of suicide and wrote in great detail about it. Suicide is a theme, explicitly, for some philosophers. For others, it is implied by their other statements. For example: if one is a Christian or Buddhist philosopher, then suicide is explicitly rejected in advance according to be doctrine, and may not need to be discussed in other philosophical works. Alternatively, if one is a Hedonist, one is attempting to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. And, under these circumstances, suicide could be a rational act. For example: Imagine that you are a prisoner of war who has been captured by a brutal enemy. The enemy knows that you are in possession of important, secret information which can be used against your country, and you know that they know this. You know that they will torture you to get the information, and then kill you. Yo I understand Albert Camus said that, Suicide was the only true philosophical question and he did put suicide as one of the responses to Absurdism. Eventually I hope to get a sense of the logic that made the kid to commit suicide. psychology existentialism share | improve this question edited Jul 28 '16 at 11:35 user2953 asked May 28 '12 at 18:35 Sushi Sushi 243 2 2 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges 1 How a young boy 20 years-old, knows all the pros and const of the life ? And this boy say that is calculate "the benefits of life", how they calculate them at that age ? and also did he have learn logic ? because logic is something that you must learn. Here he discusses the rationality of suicide: youtube.com/watch?v=MajfZIyHP8U – yousuf soliman Dec 31 '13 at 2:45 add a comment | 12 Answers 12 active oldest votes 6 I am wondering if any philosopher has considered the rationality of suicide and wrote in great detail about it. Suicide is a theme, explicitly, for some philosophers. For others, it is implied by their other statements. For example: if one is a Christian or Buddhist philosopher, then suicide is explicitly rejected in advance according to be doctrine, and may not need to be discussed in other philosophical works. Alternatively, if one is a Hedonist, one is attempting to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Where this case differs from that of the teenager in the article mentioned in the question is largely a matter of evaluation: the amount of pleasure expected in the future, the amount of pain expected, and the certainty of the estimates-- but the logic remains the same. Generally speaking, suicide has been more explicitly treated in the sociological literature; Emile Durkheim's book on the subject is the canonical starting point. I understand Albert Camus said that, Suicide was the only true philosophical question and he did put suicide as one of the responses to Absurdism. That is true, but remember that Camus is not recommending suicide. For Camus, the fact that the universe is absurd means that there is no meaning to life which precedes our existence; in such a situation, one of the most important philosophical questions to grapple with, in fact, perhaps the only philosophical question, is whether to go on living. To continue to live (i.e., not not commit suicide) is a choice -- the question then becomes, what is that choice based upon? This constitutes the meaning of one's life. Eventually I hope to get a sense of the logic that made the kid to commit suicide. The logic is clear-- he felt that the pain he was enduring was too great to be offset by any possible future circumstances. It's also worth mentioning that modern science has concluded that happiness is something you can achieve, not something you have, so he was scientifically wrong about the nature of happiness itself. – philosodad Jul 11 '12 at 22:06 | show 3 more comments 5 Logic alone can neither prove that god exists, nor that you should commit suicide. Perhaps he realized that logic can't prove that he shouldn't commit suicide, and drew the wrong conclusion. But seriously, this is more a psychological question than a philosophical one. For one thing, his age (15) indicates that he reached puberty. But it might generally be a good idea to not speculate too much about the reasons for a specific suicide, especially if you don't need it to appease yourself (for whatever reasons). This doesn't mean that you won't find understandable reasons for a specific suicide, if you really want to know. Regarding Albert Camus, he hasn't committed suicide, neither did Meursault in "The Stranger", Sisyphus in "The Myth of Sisyphus", or Dr. Bernard Rieux in "The Plague". Camus decided against publishing "A Happy Death", and even there he didn't describe an explicit suicide. And even if he did, you should view this in the context of the time in which he lived. – philosodad Jul 12 '12 at 0:53 | show 8 more comments 1 I would also like to know his philosophical and especially his mathematical reasoning for suicide. I suppose after reading many things about the state of the world in crisis (ecological, financial), he might consider suicide might be better than a potentially long period of suffering to come. But his logic was probably off. He would have avoided much suffering as his family seemd well off. Blog The Loop #1: How we conduct research on the Community team Linked 2 What is the point of staying alive if everyone dies eventually? 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