Police last week ruled that Chicago Board President Michael Scott’s death last month was a suicide. When initial reports circulated that Scott took his own life, many of his colleagues and friends reacted with disbelief. But can we ever understand why someone – whether a remote public figure or a close loved one – would take their own life? Philosopher Stephen Asma takes on this question. He says there are a number of reasons that hinder us from making sense of suicide.

Asma is professor of philosophy at Columbia College, Chicago and author of On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears.