Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophize This. Patrione.com slash Philosophize This,

philosophical writing on substack at Philosophize This on there. I hope you love the show today.

So we seem to be the only kind of creature on this planet that regularly chooses self-destructive

behavior on purpose. Should be said, there are some rare examples of this you can find in nature.

I mean, elephants apparently have done this sort of thing in captivity.

You know, certain bees have to die to be able to sting someone, I guess.

But by and large, self-destructive behavior is a uniquely human activity.

For some reason, people often make a choice to destroy a little piece of

themselves just to feel a little bit better in the short term. But why would anybody do this

realistically? I mean, if what we are, are rational, survival-oriented creatures, shouldn't

most of this behavior just be unthinkable to us? Maybe that's the problem, that that's a horrible

description of what being a human being is to be rational, survival-oriented. There's a lot of theories out there about this stuff, but there's two very interesting ones I'd like to tell you about today that make up what you could call a philosophy of self-destruction. One can be found in the work of Dostoevsky in his book, The Gambler. It's a lesser-known work of his, and it'll help dramatize all the complex psychology behind

this. Give us a more existential take on why we do it.

And number two is going to be the philosophy of Georges Batai, an absolute legend in the

world of philosophy that we never talked about on the show before.

But he has a very interesting way of framing this self-destructive behavior, one that

comes ultimately from a hidden underlying economics of all places.

And it's one that, as your philosophical Sherpa, I think it compliments Dostoevsky really well,

and it's definitely going to be worth your time.

So let's get into it.

Dostoevsky spent most of his life struggling with different kinds of

self-destructive behavior himself. He smoked cigarettes, which many people think led to his death.

...