One reason is the intractability of real predicaments, of which the human predicament may well be the paradigmatic example. If one is in a predicament from which there is a costless (or a low-cost) escape, one is not really in a predicament. If, for example, one is up a creek without a paddle but one does have an outboard motor, then being up a creek without a paddle is not a real predicament. Real predicaments—the wrenching ones—are those in which there is no easy solution. Death might deliver us from suffering, but annihilation, as I shall argue, is an extremely costly “solution” and thus
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