From Conatus to Duty Spinoza and Kant on self-preservation and suicide
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/rc.15130559Keywords:
Conatus, Duty, Self-preservation, Reason, SuicideAbstract
ABSTRACT:
Spinoza maintained that the conatus (striving) for self
-preservation is a necessity, so that nothing would freely and willingly kill
itself. In this process reason , by providing adequate plays a role as
guide to conatus , however, this weakens Spinoza’s opposition against
suicide: on the one hand, common people , by lacking the guidance of
reason commit suicide because they have not obtained adequate ideas;
on the other hand, people who have adequate ideas under the guidance
of reason might kill themselves in order to avoid greater evil . This article
argues that Kant changed the role of reason , making it something higher
than conatus , and at the same time, he turned the command of practical
reason (duty) into something that common people could grasp, thereby
solv ing Spinoza's defect: it is a duty for an individual to self preserve
Kant opposed any kind of suicide in order to avoid greater evil , and this
command of reason ( can reach all common people As a result, no
one has the excuse to commit suicide. It is Kant, not Spinoza, who made
the opposition to suicide a general moral law.
Keywords:
conatus , duty , self preservation, suicide, reason
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