"A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die."?

Question

By Franz Kafka.

Do you agree? Has this been true for anyone?

Answer 1

Understanding comes when you realize why you must die, but the wish to die is just the way you choose to see your life.

Answer 2

It could mean that when you go through extreme hardships (ie a wish to die) it makes you a person who is better able to analyze and understand and clearly observe the world around you. I know that really tough times have turned me from a conservative elitist to an empathetic and intellectual person (although I'm still a bit elitist)

Answer 3

I do not agree with a whole lot of "psycho-babble".

*

Answer 4

understandably true,the suicide option that crept into my head has really made me ask the question why am i here existing and what am i here for anyway, it made me appreciate philosophy and philosophy made life complex in an interesting manner, its my only basis of existence right now without it i would kill myself.

Answer 5

No it is not correct. It contradicts everyhing we observe in nature and its struggle to stay alive.

The wish to die may well come from an incomplete understanding or the desperation that comes with the realisation you will never understand everything.

Answer 6

I was going to accuse you of a brilliant insight because I had never heard this quote from my favorite author. It is totally true and anybody who doesn't understand it has no idea what is actually going on.

Reading Cioran is also another form of the wish to die.

And Yahoo saith:

"Tip: Be as specific and detailed as you can. Use any personal experience or knowledge you might have."

"You can use research to help support your answer."

"Hmm...it looks like you have a lot of punctuation."

"Oops! It looks like you have 1 misspelling(s)." The word Hmmm.

"Oops! It looks like you have 2 misspelling(s)."

"Please correct your spelling."

"Oops! It looks like you have 3 misspelling(s)." - Cioran

"Oops! It looks like you have 4 misspelling(s)."  - Cioran

"Oops! It looks like you have 5 misspelling(s)." - Cioran

"Oops! It looks like you have 6 misspelling(s)."  - Cioran

etc... ad infinitum.

"Oops! It looks like you have 8 misspelling(s)."

Answer 7

This question is actually fallacious.  Anybody who agrees and is still alive to answer it is, by logic, incompetent.  Anybody who disagrees supposedly doesn't have the understanding referenced in the question.

But... I would like to be somewhat useful.  Kafka is probably refering to an idea later described in more detail by Albert Camus in the Myth of Sisyphus, that the first philosophical question one should have is whether or not to commit suicide.

Answer 8

I'd flip that around.  "A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to live."  You only get one life.  Better start living it if you haven't already.

Answer 9

Kafka had some difficult issues to work on in his life.  Not really ever really fitting in to the society he was raised in.  I guess that it may have been true for him.  It is not true for me but I can see it happening in extreme cases where every real possibility is blocked by your society.

Answer 10

I would have to agree.

I'm catholic so I believe in life after death.

Basically if you're good, you go to heaven, if you are bad, you go to h**l.

If you have always been good then you are going to a place much better than the one you are in. It is full of peace and tranquility. There are no wars or no starving children.

Wouldn't a life like that make you wish you were dead? It is certainly appealing to me :)

oxox

~J

Answer 11

Maybe to understanding the root of the depression that is causing suicide, but not much else.

Answer 12

POOR KAFKA MUST HAVE WAITED A LONG, LONG TIME FOR THAT UNDERSTANDING !! HOW LONG DID HE LIVE?