Suicides often leave loved ones, acquaintances and co-workers to question themselves for the rest of their lives. And in their own grief, they, too, can entertain dangerous thoughts. “With suicide you have that added trauma to it,” said Julie Cerel, the president of the American Association of Suicidology. “The ‘why’ question of trying to search for meaning when there’s no meaning available—If I only had a note. If I only talked to the last person that they talked to. The ‘onlys’ can be torturous.’”

But if you continued attending philosophy classes in any English-speaking institution, you probably found pretty soon that all this excitement about mysteries that got you hooked in the first place has somewhat arbitrary boundaries and is rather rigidly stratified. Not all mysteries are treated with equal enthusiasm. The mysteries about the metaphysics of possible worlds, about the nature of knowledge – super exciting! The puzzles of aesthetic value, of medical ethics – I guess still a bit exciting. The unanswered questions in the politics of race or reproductive justice – well, apparently some people find these exciting, but they are not at your university. And what about the mystery of the personal perception and value of emptiness? Err… what is this, some Asian stuff? Come on, we’re trying to do real philosophy here.