Hermeneutica sinuciderii: o istorie a ideilor filosofice privind sinuciderea în Antichitate
The Hermeneutics of Suicide: The History of Philosophical Ideas about Suicide in Antiquity

Summary/Abstract: In this study, I examine the problem of suicide and the ways in which it is articulated as a freely chosen death within ancient philosophy. Beginning with contemporary debates on the topic, I turn to Plato’s account, in which life is not at our disposal and suicide is regarded as an immoral act that offends the gods. I then reconsider the hedonistic perspective, according to which Epicurus allows suicide when the self is deprived of pleasure and overwhelmed by pain. Epictetus’s Stoic ethics is treated here as a radical moral stance, wherein suicide appears as a necessity in the absence of a good life. Finally, I analyze Seneca’s hermeneutical construction of the concept of suicide, understood as a “noble” or “beautiful” death.

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