Concept
Passions of the Soul
Overview
essay by René Descartes
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Passions of the Soul is discussed.
_I answer that,_ The passions of the soul are in the sensual appetite, the object of which is good and evil. Wherefore some passions of the soul are directed to what is good, as love and joy; others to what is evil, as fear and sorrow. And since in the primitive state, evil was neither present nor imminent, nor was any good wanting which a good-will could desire to have then, as Augustine says (De Civ.
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
states what it is; names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Thus the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from this same necessity and efficacy of nature; they answer to certain definite causes, through which they are understood, and possess certain properties as worthy of being known as the properties of anything else, whereof the contemplation in itself affords us delight. I shall, therefore, treat of the nature and strength of the…
Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics
states what it is
By reason of these affections the soul is at first without intelligence, but as time goes on the stream of nutriment abates, and the courses of the soul regain their proper motion, and apprehend the same and the other rightly, and become rational. The soul of him who has education is whole and perfect and escapes the worst disease, but, if a man’s education be neglected, he walks lamely through life and returns good…
Plato, Timaeus
states what it is; author linked in the graph
I will endeavour to explain to you in what way the mortal differs from the immortal creature. The soul in her totality has the care of inanimate being everywhere, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms appearing--when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and orders the whole world; whereas the imperfect soul, losing her wings and drooping in her flight at last settles on the solid ground--there…
Plato, Phaedrus
states what it is; author linked in the graph
But those who cherish and take naturally to the baseness that is born in them must also expect to be pursued to the end by that justice which the likeness of vice demands. For just as warts and livid spots and freckles that fathers sometimes have, are not on their sons, but afterwards reappear on the grandsons, and granddaughters; and a certain Greek woman who had given birth to a black child for which she was…
Charles William Super, Between Heathenism and Christianity
states what it is; names the idea
Philosophers who discussed Passions of the Soul
Related ideas
- Gilbert Ryle
- Emotion
- The Concept of Mind
- Cartesianism
- Passion (emotion)
- Philosophy
- On the Soul
- Happiness
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Mind–body dualism
- Love
- Discourse on the Method
- Mathematician
- Stoicism
- Desire
- Passions (philosophy)
- Augustine of Hippo
- Western culture
- Thomas Aquinas
- Alexandre Koyré
- Nervous system
- Ghost in the machine
- Psychology
- Plato
Place in the tradition
Part of Heraclitus.