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    The debt-of-gratitude variation of the gift analogy also ... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The debt-of-gratitude variation of the gift analogy also fails to prohibit suicide, because disposing of one's life is not inconsistent with expressing gratitude for having lived.

    Afterlife & Death
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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Gratitude, as Aristotle argues in the Nicomachean Ethics, is an affective disposition expressed through acknowledgment and reciprocal action, not indefinite prolongation of a received benefit.
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    • 2.A recipient who fully acknowledges and cherishes a gift before returning it has satisfied the normative demands of gratitude, since gratitude concerns the relational attitude, not the perpetual retention of the gift.
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    • 3.Therefore, a person who has lived with genuine thankfulness for existence fulfills the debt-of-gratitude obligation regardless of how or when life ends.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.David Hume in 'Of Suicide' argues that if we owe God gratitude for life, that obligation is equally consistent with using life well and concluding it deliberately as with prolonging it passively.
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    • 2.Stoic philosophers, particularly Seneca, held that the freedom to exit life is itself evidence of providential generosity, making a grateful acceptance of that freedom logically coherent with theistic gratitude.
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    • 3.An obligation of gratitude cannot coherently demand that one endure conditions under which the gift has ceased to confer benefit, since gratitude tracks the value received, not mere possession.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.The debt-of-gratitude argument holds that humans owe God gratitude for life and thus must not kill themselves.
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    • 2.Disposing of one's life does not preclude having expressed or felt gratitude for one's life.
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    • 3.Therefore suicide does not necessarily constitute ingratitude toward God.
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    Related

    A recipient who fully acknowledges and cherishes a gift before returning it has ...An obligation of gratitude cannot coherently demand that one endure conditions u...David Hume in 'Of Suicide' argues that if we owe God gratitude for life, that ob...Disposing of one's life does not preclude having expressed or felt gratitude for...
    +5 moreShow less
    Gratitude, as Aristotle argues in the Nicomachean Ethics, is an affective dispos...Stoic philosophers, particularly Seneca, held that the freedom to exit life is i...The debt-of-gratitude argument holds that humans owe God gratitude for life and ...Therefore suicide does not necessarily constitute ingratitude toward God.Therefore, a person who has lived with genuine thankfulness for existence fulfil...

    Similar

    The gift analogy fails to justify the claim that God's giving of life ...90%The gift analogy only prohibits suicide if life is genuinely a benefit...89%Defenders of the gift analogy must argue that life given by a loving G...88%The debt-of-gratitude argument holds that humans owe God gratitude for...87%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: suicide
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    Another common analogy asserts that God bestows life upon us as a gift, and it would be a mark of ingratitude or neglect to reject that gift by taking our lives. The obvious weakness with this “gift analogy” is that a gift, genuinely given, does not come with conditions such as that suggested by the analogy, i.e., once given, a gift becomes the property of its recipient and its giver no longer has any claim on what the recipient does with this gift. It may perhaps be imprudent to waste an especi
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit