This is

This is Philosophy Bites with me Nigel Warburton and me David Edmonds

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What reasons do we have to live?

Or to put it another way, why should we not end it all?

Kill ourselves.

The French Algerian existentialist Albert Camus thought this was a central, if not the central question in philosophy.

And it's a question which Simon Critchley of New York's The New School has also been reflecting

on.

Simon Critchley, welcome to Frosty Bites.

Thank you very much.

The topic we're going to focus on is suicide.

Albert Kamu famously said that suicide is the only philosophically important question for a human being.

What does that mean?

Well for him it's a question which has to be first answered before you get into any other philosophical questions.

So the question whether you should live or die is the primary philosophical question that one should resolve.

To be or not to be?

Do you think he's right though?

I mean, it's really quite difficult to end one's life,

so suicide for most people isn't really a serious option.

...