ABSTRACT:Spinoza maintained that the conatus (striving) for self-preservation is a necessity, so that nothing would freely and willingly killitself. In this process reason , by providing adequate plays a role asguide to conatus , however, this weakens Spinoza’s opposition againstsuicide: on the one hand, common people , by lacking the guidance ofreason commit suicide because they have not obtained adequate ideas;on the other hand, people who have adequate ideas under the guidanceof reason might kill themselves in order to avoid greater evil . This articleargues that Kant changed the role of reason , making it something higherthan conatus , and at the same time, he turned the command of practicalreason (duty) into something that common people could grasp, therebysolv ing Spinoza's defect: it is a duty for an individual to self preserveKant opposed any kind of suicide in order to avoid greater evil , and thiscommand of reason ( can reach all common people As a result, noone has the excuse to commit suicide. It is Kant, not Spinoza, who madethe opposition to suicide a general moral law.Keywords:conatus , duty , self preservation, suicide, reaso
