From Act to Fact
The Transformation of Suicide in Western Thought
in Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
Abstract
The article is about the moral debate over suicide, from Augustine to the present. It assesses critically the transformation of a humanistic debate into a scientific one. Among the figures who receive detailed attention are Augustine, Montaigne, Donne, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Durkheim.