Philosophy Now Forum

Hey,

Im doing an assignment for social science. The assignment is to take a social issue and solve it like you are a famous philosopher. So I chose John Locke and the issue I chose is Assisted Suicide.
Now I need to find out some things about these two and how I could solve it. So I hoped someone here could help me out.

Where exactly is assisted suicide (euthanasia) legal?
And what are the main ideas of John Locke (searched for this on Google but did not really understand it) and his ideas about suicide?

Hope someone can help me out!

Switzerland for one.

JaapvdE wrote:Hey,

Im doing an assignment for social science. The assignment is to take a social issue and solve it like you are a famous philosopher. So I chose John Locke and the issue I chose is Assisted Suicide.
Now I need to find out some things about these two and how I could solve it. So I hoped someone here could help me out.

Where exactly is assisted suicide (euthanasia) legal?
And what are the main ideas of John Locke (searched for this on Google but did not really understand it) and his ideas about suicide?

Hope someone can help me out!

I can't remember JL saying anything about it.
Why not use a philosopher that had something to say about suicide such as Albert Camus, or Socrates?

Legality of euthanasia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_euthanasia

Voluntary euthanasia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_euthanasia

See if you can find something in history reading.

JaapvdE wrote:Where exactly is assisted suicide (euthanasia) legal?

This information should be relatively easy to find on the web. At the very least try the relevant Wikipedia entry.

JaapvdE wrote:And what are the main ideas of John Locke (searched for this on Google but did not really understand it) and his ideas about suicide?

I've never thought of Locke in the context of the assisted suicide debate so, as chaz says, he may not be the easiest to use in your argument.

Given the fact that Locke was both religious and a physician, it's hard to think that he never encountered the problem.

The Catholic church was definitely against it but I have no idea about the Calvinist stance on the matter. Given his later influence from Socinianism and its views on human nature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socinianism#Human_nature) it could very much be that he had a more liberal view on it, but there's no guarantee of that.

Socinian theology was rooted in skepticism

From that quote much could be said about opportunities that he broke with traditional stances on the matter, but again, pure speculation.

As he thinks you are the person to fill in your own life. So from that point of view he would say you could commit suicide but somewhere else I found that he thinks you should never commit suicide. This confused me and was one of the reasons I posted this topic.

JaapvdE wrote:As he thinks you are the person to fill in your own life. So from that point of view he would say you could commit suicide but somewhere else I found that he thinks you should never commit suicide. This confused me and was one of the reasons I posted this topic.

Perhaps if you quoted him in context, then we could be of some help.
John Locke never uses the word suicide in his entire works so any reference to the idea has to be oblique.

JaapvdE wrote: John Locke never uses the word suicide in his entire works so any reference to the idea has to be oblique.

That's a daring claim you could impossibly back up. Writing extensively I hardly find it possible you just went through all his works before you said that, or have ever in your life gone through his work. Hold your tongue if you can't back up with evidence, or at the least state that you make suppositions and don't pretend knowledge.

The Voice of Time wrote:

JaapvdE wrote: John Locke never uses the word suicide in his entire works so any reference to the idea has to be oblique.

That's a daring claim you could impossibly back up. Writing extensively I hardly find it possible you just went through all his works before you said that, or have ever in your life gone through his work. Hold your tongue if you can't back up with evidence, or at the least state that you make suppositions and don't pretend knowledge.

We live in a digital world my friend.
Prove me wrong!

Prove me a source which makes it even possible!

I found in this PDF found on google: http://www3.wooster.edu/polisci/IS/roscoe.pdf Page 4 fifth line.

JaapvdE wrote:I found in this PDF found on google: http://www3.wooster.edu/polisci/IS/roscoe.pdf Page 4 fifth line.

The line you're referring to: "John Locke directly states that people do not own their lives, they belong to God and therefore suicide is wrong in the same sense as stealing."

Locke tends to fall back on religious assumptions quite often so this is par for the course but if you're not going to accept the religious assumption then there's a bit of work to do.

Locke's politics are informed by his religious convictions and even in Letters Concerning Toleration he argues for toleration between different religious groups but still can't jettison his general distrust of atheists.

Incidentally, what level are you writing this for?

JaapvdE wrote:I found in this PDF found on google: http://www3.wooster.edu/polisci/IS/roscoe.pdf Page 4 fifth line.

Sadly he does not take the trouble to cite the quote, properly.
Locke does not use the word suicide.

The Voice of Time wrote:Prove me a source which makes it even possible!

http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?op ... title=1725