My working paper on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul - Thank you David Hume

I cannot imagine a better source from modern philosophy for information on suicide and its metaphysical issues.

Hume wrote Five Dissertations on suicide and the soul and completed them 1755. Because of cultural and religious issues at the time, Hume withdrew the first book and replaced it with "Of the Standard of Taste."

ESSAYS ON SUICIDE,ANDTHE IMMORTALITYOF THESOUL,
Revisited by Ed Evans for posterity.



THESE two Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul, though not published in any edition of his works, are generally attributed to the late ingenious Mr. Hume.


The two very matterly Letters from the Eloisa of Rosseau on the subject of Suicide, have been much celebrated, and we hope will be considered as materially increasing the value of this curious collection.


ESSAY I.
ON SUICIDE





Philosophy exposes superstition and false religion. No other remedy against these two parasites exists, more than likely. Even experience and good sense fail. Our history shows that among our greatest thinkers these parasites manipulated their thoughts to the poorest ends. The satisfied, the “happy,” and the well-to-do find their greatest joys “blasted” by these shallow thoughts, these parasites. Bring Philosophy to the helm as a cure to these parasites and a more just outcome is assured, unless the guiding Philosophy is itself infected by superstition and false religion.