Dussel and Suicide

Abstract

In his recent book, Ética de la liberación en la edad de la globalización y la exclusión (1998), Enrique Dussel presents his “ethics of liberation” as an “ethics of life” opposed to “suicide tendencies” in the modern world. This paper addresses certain difficulties in Dussel’s statement of the material principle of respect of human life, the ideal of social liberation and the absolute refusal of suicide at the same time. I maintain that Dussel is constrained to some reformulation of at least one of these three issues. In fact, Dussel is compelled to keep the principle of liberation as the main support of his ethics, admitting crucial reformulation of the material principle of respect of human life and some sort of moral tolerance concerning suicide.