The Purpose of My Death

Abstract

Chapter 2 discusses Shelly Kagan’s views about (i) when ending or not ending one’s life does or does not make sense, and (ii) how to reach a decision about this issue. It considers whether his views about the worth of living on are consistent with his views about when it makes no sense to end one’s life. The chapter also examines whether the way in which Kagan adds up the negative and positive aspects of life to decide whether to live on gives sufficient weight to context-dependent values and to the reasonableness of not going through great suffering for the sake of an even greater good to oneself.