Passion and Action

Abstract

Abstract Passion and Action explores the place of the affects or passions in seventeenth‐century understandings of the body and mind, and examines the role they were held to play in thought and action. Interest in the passions pervaded all areas of philosophical enquiry and was central to the theories of such major figures as Hobbes, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Pascal, and Locke, as well as to the work of authors who are nowadays less familiar. Yet, little attention has been paid to this topic in studies of early modern philosophy. This book surveys the inheritance of ancient and medieval doctrines about the passions, and shows how these were incorporated into new philosophical approaches in the course of the seventeenth century. It examines the place of the passions in body and mind, their role in the acquisition of knowledge and their relation to volition and action, offering fresh interpretations of a broad range of texts by well‐known writers, as well as by less canonical figures. It establishes that a full understanding of the philosophy of this period must take account of its discussions of our affective life. Passion and Action also addresses current debates, particularly those concerned with the embodied character of thinking and the relation between emotion and knowledge, which have played a central part in feminist philosophy. It throws new light on the shaping of our ideas about the mind, and provides a historical context for burgeoning contemporary investigations of the emotions.

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