Friday, October 2, 2015

Suicide and Philosophy - 50 Books to Download


Only $3.00 -  You can pay using the Cash App by sending money to $HeinzSchmitz and send me an email at theoldcdbookshop@gmail.com with your email for the download. You can also pay using Facebook Pay in Messenger


Books Scanned from the Originals into PDF format


Books are in the public domain. I will take checks or money orders as well.

Contents(created on a Windows computer):

On Suicide by David Hume 1854 (Hume claims that suicide can be compared to retiring from society and becoming a total recluse, which is not normally considered to be immoral)

Essays of Schopenhauer 1897 (As far as I can see, it is only the followers of monotheistic, that is of Jewish, religions that regard suicide as a crime. This is the more striking as there is no forbiddance of it, or even positive disapproval of it, to be found either in the New Testament or the Old; so that teachers of religion have to base their disapprobation of suicide on their own philosophical grounds)

The Morals of Suicide by James Gunrhill 1900

Is Life Worth Living by William James 1896

Suicide not evidence of Insanity by Olive Palmer 1878

Is Suicide a Sin? by Robert Green Ingersoll, Prefaced by a Startling Chapter, Great Suicides of History! 1894

Is Suicide Murder? by William Mikell 1903

The Philosophy of Death by John Reid 1841

Suicide - Studies on its Philosophy, Causes and Prevention by James J O'Dea MD 1882

The Anatomy of Suicide by Forbes Winslow 1840

Elements of moral philosophy by Jaspar Adams 1837 (Duty of Preserving Life and Death)

Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy 1845 (has a section on Suicide)

Suicide: an essay on comparative moral statistics by Enrico Morselli 1882

The Problems of Suicide by George Kennan 1908

Is life worth living? by WJ Mallock 1890

Eight Historical Dissertations in Suicide, in Reference to Philosophy, Theology and Legislation by H.G. Migault 1856 (over 1000 pages)

The Value of Life - a reply to Mr. Mallock's essay "Is life worth living"? 1879



Psychotherapy including the history of the use of mental influence by James Joseph Walsh (has a section on Suicide)

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1902 (this is an epistolary novel, and when it was first released in the late 18th century led to a rash of copycat suicides. As a matter of interest, a Hungarian suicide song released in the 1930's called Gloomy Sunday had a similar effect. You can find that song on youtube, I especially like the Sarah Mclachlan version.)

Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton 1915 (Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It Is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence; the refusal to take the oath of loyalty to life. The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men; as far as he is concerned he wipes out the world.)

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics by Immanuel Kant 1895 (from wikipedia: Immanuel Kant argues against suicide in Fundamental Principles of The Metaphysic of Morals. In accordance with the second formulation of his categorical imperative, Kant argues that, "He who contemplates suicide should ask himself whether his action can be consistent with the idea of humanity as an end in itself." Kant's theory looks at the act only, and not at its outcomes and consequences, and claims that one is ethically required to consider whether one would be willing to universalise the act: to claim everyone should behave that way. Kant argues that choosing to commit suicide entails considering oneself as a means to an end, which he rejects: a person, he says, must not be used "...merely as means, but must in all actions always be considered as an end in himself." Therefore, it is unethical to commit suicide to satisfy oneself.)

Suicide and Insanity - a physiological and sociological study by S.A.K. Strahan 1893 (poor quality scan, but a lot of interesting information)

Reflections on suicide by Madame de Stael 1813

Esquirol and Falret on Suicide, article in The Medico-Chirurgical Review and Journal of Medical Science 1824

The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Volume 1 by Edward Westermarck 1912

The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Volume 2 by Edward Westermarck 1912

The psychology of the emotions by Th Ribot 1898 ("The act of suicide results from two very different mental states, that of reflection and that of impulsion.")

Suicide by GA Shurtleff 1877 (Let me say, then, that sane persons do commit suicide, and that an act of self-destruction is not, in itself, conclusive evidence of mental unsoundness.)

Neurotic books and newspapers as factors in the mortality of suicide and crime by Edward Phelps 1911

The mind of Shakspeare as exhibited in his works by Aaron A Morgan 1860
(It is interesting to note that Shakespeare's most famous bit has to do with Suicide: "To be, or not to be; that is the question:
Whether't is nobler in the mind, to suffer The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them?")



Thoughts on suicide 1819

The Gallows of Judas Iscariot by Archer Taylor 1921

The Mediaeval Legend of Judas Iscariot by Paull Baum 1916

Did Judas Really Commit Suicide? J Rendell Harris 1900

Suicide and its relation to climatic and other factors (often difficult to read) by John Rice Miner 1922

Life - Is it Worth Living? by John Marshall Lang 1883

Is life worth living without immortality by MM Mangasarian 1911

Is Life Worth Living? A Debate between Frederick Starr and Clarence Darrow 1915

Happiness - Essays on the meaning of life by Karl Hilty 1903

The Meaning of Life by WL Courntey 1914

The Meaning of Life by A Edwin Keigwin 1922

The Meaning and value of Life by Rudolk Eucken 1913

Philosophy of the Practical by B Croce 1913

Philosophy, What is it? FB Jevons 1950

The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer 1890

Tolstoy on God, and the Meaning of Life 1904

Has Life Any Meaning, a Debate, by Frank Harris, Percy Ward 1920

Benthamiana - Select extracts from the works of Jeremy Bentham 1843 (greatest happiness principle)

Suicide: History of the penal laws relating to it in their legal, social, moral, and religious aspects, in ancient and modern times by RS Guernsey 1883

1 comment:

  1. Why is it that men, who are afraid of death, call those who commit suicide “cowards”? ~ Of Philosophers and Fools by C.J. Cala

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