Description

Les Passions de l'âme (The passions of the soul) is a treatise on moral philosophy, published in Paris in 1649, in which the philosopher René Descartes (1596−1650) theorizes on “the passions,” or what contemporary readers would call emotions. Descartes argues that passions are a matter of nature and therefore of the body. They are not inherently bad for the spirit, as long as they are kept in check by morals and free will, which are capable of evaluating the passions. While Descartes continues in a long tradition of ...