Citation

Busche H. Philosophisches Jahrbuch 2004; 111(Pt 2): 62-89.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

For the weighty ethical issue whether sell-killing is legitimate or not the controversial arguments of Thomas Aquinas and David Hume are amongst the most instructive reasons ever written in the history of this problem. With his three arguments Aquinas provitles one of the most comprehensive and influential accusations against suicide, while Hume with his three parallel counterarguments gives one of the most widely read and representative defences. The present study firstly gives an outline of the religious back ground of the question, secondly a micrological analysis of the arguments on both sides, pointing out their different axiomatic presuppositions and showing that Hume does not weaken Aquinas' reasons argumentatively, but repeals them by his own new premisses.

Language: de