Why do people commit suicide? From a philosophical perspective

Why do people commit suicide? Are they programmed faulty? I know an intelligent friend who offed himselfed at the height of his life for no particular reason.

What do they know that us mortals dont? From a philosophical perspective.

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Existential nihilism and philosophical pessimism can definitely lead intelligent people down that road.

philosophynow.org/issues/45/The_Last_Messiah

Or it could do the opposite, or nothing. Really the latter is much more likely, because realizing that nothing matters shouldn't necessarily change how you live your life, since if nothing matters then why change your habits and such?

That is one padded bra I tell you what. Who is this jizz jockey?

Not philosophically but biologically suicide and ritual suicide are a form of population control. It's a way for humans to cull the heard by justifying it in some sort of esoteric manner. Today we've replaced esoteric meanings with existential crises as the means in which willing individuals justify offing themselves

Not having a meaningful framework to pursue and attain goals can lead to existential despair. It all depends on the individual, but those philosophies are definitely sui fuel for some people.

>it just weeds out brainlets who can't into positive nihilism or existentialism

Very accurate thinking

IMO, it's just the belief of nihilism, and that they don't matter in the great scheme of things, and that they are going to die eventually. Weirdly enough, I usually see intelligent people commit suicide far more often, because they are usually fully aware that they don't mean shit to the world. Stupid people are more likely to follow a religion IMO, so they don't think about how shitty life can be sometimes because they think that they are just gonna live eternally after they die anyways. I'm not advocating suicide in anyway, I just think that's the sorta mindset that those people have, for the most part anyways. I'm sure people have killed themselves for incredibly stupid reasons. Weirdly, for me, the knowledge that I don't really have a set path, and that I'm not fated to do anything is comforting to me, because I took that as meaning I can do whatever the fuck I want, and I can achieve whatever I want if I work my ass off at it. Other people with that knowledge though, get all existentially scarred from the aspect that they are in full control of their lives, and that their mistakes do matter.
Sorry if I'm typing like a retard, running on little sleep here.

>Existentialism

How's high school?

>It will here be superfluous to magnify the merits of philosophy, by displaying the pernicious tendency of that vice, of which it cures the human mind. The superstitious man, says Tully, [Cicero, On Divination 2.72.] is miserable in every scene, in every incident of life. Even sleep itself, which banishes all other cares of unhappy mortals, affords to him matter of new terror; while he examines his dreams, and finds in those visions of the night, prognostications of future calamities. I may add, that, tho' death alone can put a full period to his misery, he dares not fly to this refuge, but still prolongs a miserable existence, from a vain fear, lest he offend his maker, by using the power, with which that beneficent being has endowed him. The presents of God and Nature are ravished from us by this cruel enemy; and notwithstanding that one step would remove us from the regions of pain and sorrow, her menaces still chain us down to a hated being, which she herself chiefly contributes to render miserable.
Read David Hume

Suicide may have been beneficial for kin selection in an ancestral environment under extreme circumstances, even if maladaptive in a prosperous environment today. However, the problem with evolutionary psychology speculations like this is that we have very little material evidence and no firsthand accounts to test our claims. Some behaviors are simply divergent outcomes of our cognitive abilities, cultural trends and environmental conditioning with no close connection to biological fitness.

Group selection is not kin selection. It's a pseudoscientific meme. There is no real disadvantage to biological fitness from being overpopulated that outweighs the sheer number of offspring. Increased parental care is a viable alternative to breeding like rabbits, but suicide accomplishes neither of these things.

>Weirdly enough, I usually see intelligent people commit suicide far more often, because they are usually fully aware that they don't mean shit to the world.

I disagree. Suicide correlates with things like drug addiction, sexual abuse, cultural norms, mental illness, being in a rural area, being LGBT, access to firearms and social isolation more than intelligence. Ethnicity can also be a factor: Native Americans in the US have higher suicide rates than white people, who have higher suicide rates than black people - not entirely sure why (perhaps religion is a factor). Women also have a higher rate of suicide attempts than men, but less completed suicides, probably due to using less violent methods like pills as opposed to guns/hanging.

On a morbidly interesting side note, I've heard suicide methods vary in the military. Firearms are more common for the army, hanging in the navy, and jumping off heights for the air force. In many third world countries, drinking insecticide is common, which seems like a fucking horrible way to go.

Another quality thread brought to you by &humanities.

Poison is generally one of the worst ways to go about suicide.

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Uh, how was that a /pol/ post? Seriously.

Having a truly difficult life can cause it, if I wasn't as strong minded as I am I would have but instead I'm persevering through to try to make it to a point where I can be a person of influence/power to make sure no child goes through what I experienced growing up.

Sometimes I think that's the only thing left. If we can't fix our present situation, at least to fix the future.

But I lose hope everyday in regards to that

THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER, REGARDLESS OF THE PARTICULAR CAUSES: TO CONTINUE LIVING ENTAILS CONTINUATION OF SUFFERING; ONE IS UNABLE TO COUNTER, OR TO OVERCOME, THE SUFFERING, THEREFORE, DEATH IS PREFERABLE.

Fuck off you autist