Abstract

This thesis compares Spinoza's ethics to that of the Stoics'. It is structured around a case study: suicide. From a detailed investigation of their views on suicide, questions emerge about first principles of their ethics. In chapters two--five, I try to answer these questions, aligning Spinoza to the Stoics and, where further context is necessary, introducing other ancient and early modern philosophers. ;The topics of chapters two--four include: oikeiosis and conatus; natural laws and moral deliberation; axiology and the summum bonum. In each case, I try to determine the extent of the similarity of the two systems' principles. While there is some convergence in their views on specific points of doctrine, at this level they disagree just as often as they agree. Nonetheless, I believe there is something to the intuition that Spinoza's ethics is deeply Stoical. In the final chapter, I argue that the essential similarity of their ethical views is to be found at the most basic level, in their conceptions of reason per se