Citation

Humphrey N. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 2018; 373(1754): e269.

Affiliation

Darwin College, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EU, UK humphrey@me.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Royal Society of London)

DOI

10.1098/rstb.2017.0269

PMID

30012736

Abstract

At some point in evolutionary history, human beings came to understand, as no non-human animals do, that death brings to an end a person's bodily and mental presence in the world. A potentially devastating consequence was that individuals, seeking to escape physical or mental pain, might choose to kill themselves.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.

© 2018 The Author(s).

Language: en

Keywords

consciousness; human evolution; suicide