StRev comments on Gandhi, murder pills, and mental illness - Less Wrong

8 Post author: erratio 13 October 2010 09:16AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 14 February 2013 07:17:27PM 0 points [-]

If Charlie's depression is that central to his 'self', then taking such a pill amounts to suicide. The existence of a post-pill alternate Charlie shouldn't matter; it won't be him.

The parallelism between Gandhi and Charlie here is poor because Gandhi has strong, externally directed terminal values, and Charlie doesn't. You could strengthen the problem by making Charlie a passionately committed negative utilitarian like Sister Y.