Prudence and Guilt
Morality is commonly conceived as (the source of) a particular kind [1] of obligation (or prohibition or permission) having to do with an individual’s (or group’s) relation to others. Thus, it would be immoral to do unto others what you would not want done to yourself, but it does not seem to be a moral issue whether you would do that same thing to yourself. For example, it is, other things equal, wrong to slap somebody else, but not yourself. [2] This is not a hard and fast rule, however, since some acts are deemed wrong [3] to do even unto oneself, such as killing (suicide). And the great ethics of both Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill apply to what the moral agent does or does not do to themself as well as to others. Thus, Kant would deem it wrong to use even oneself merely as a means, and Mill would deem it wrong to do (or not do) something to oneself that would bring less pleasure into the world than not doing (or doing) it. Still, the connection