The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions

by David Benatar

One cannot undo a suicide. One annihilates oneself. Yet, contrary to what some have thought, suicide cannot for this reason be ruled out categorically. There are some fates that are both worse than and only avoidable by death. We cannot state baldly that the human predicament is such a fate,1 and thus suicide cannot be recommended to all people at all times as a solution to the human predicament. One reason for this, as we saw in chapter 5, is that death (which obviously includes death by one’s own hand) is part of the human predicament. One’s death obviously does not solve the problem of one’s mortality. Second, suicide, like death more generally, does not typically solve the problem of meaninglessness. Indeed, it often exacerbates that problem. Death can solve the problem of felt meaninglessness. Once one is dead, one can no longer suffer the feeling that one’s life lacks meaning. However, as I shall argue, there are often other, less drastic responses to that problem.