Summary: Passions of the Soul (page 2)

For Descartes, the pineal gland is the seat of the soul because all the organs of the body are paired, except this one. It is necessary for dual perceptions — such as those from the right and left eyes — to converge in a single organ.

This gland may be moved by animal spirits in as many diverse ways as there are sensible differences in objects, but it may also be moved in various ways by the soul ¹. We can thus observe, from a physiological standpoint, the connections between body and mind:

The soul radiates from this gland to the rest of the body via the spirits, nerves, and even the blood ².

There is not within us a lower part of the soul (the sensitive) and a higher part (the rational), for there is but one soul in us, and this soul has no diversity of parts within itself ³.

Our will can combat our passions — not directly, but indirectly — by examining the object that gives rise to them. It may by habit be separated from it and joined to quite different passions ⁴.

Finally, there is no soul so weak that it cannot, if properly guided, acquire absolute power over its passions ⁵.

Since the general cause of the passions is the agitation with which the spirits move the small gland in the middle of the brain ⁶, all the kinds of passions can be identified by examining the different kinds of effects that objects produce in us.

This investigation allows Descartes to identify the six primitive passions: admiration, love, hatred, desire, joy, and sadness.

All other passions are either compounds of these six, or species of them.

For example, the three passions known as affection, friendship, and devotion are merely varieties of love.

Admiration is the only passion whose cause lies solely in the brain. The causes of the other five are also found in the heart, spleen, liver, and other organs.

For instance:

Hatred is characterised by: a weaker pulse, coldness in the chest, and nausea.

Joy manifests as warmth throughout the body.

Love produces a stronger pulse, and the digestion of meat is performed very promptly in the stomach, making this passion beneficial for health ⁷.

There is therefore indeed a connection between the soul and the body. That is why once we have associated a bodily action with a thought, neither presents itself to us afterwards without the other also appearing ⁸.

The passions are useful: Their natural purpose is to induce the soul to consent to and contribute to actions that may preserve the body or make it more perfect ⁹. Thus, sadness, through the pain it causes us, warns us of what is harmful to the body, while joy alerts us to what benefits it.

Even desire, though rejected by some philosophers and by the Church, is useful: When it stems from true knowledge, it cannot be evil — provided that it is not excessive and that this knowledge regulates it ¹⁰.

Even unfounded love or joy has its use.

We must concern ourselves only with what lies within our power — a distinctly Stoic note in Descartes.

Descartes then examines the various particular passions.

The only legitimate ground for self-esteem is the presence of free will within us. It is the one attribute that makes man resemble God.

Generosity is the art of esteeming oneself legitimately — as highly as possible — without despising others.

We must not, then, flee from the passions:

The men who are most moved by them are able to taste the sweetest pleasures in life ¹¹.

We should fear them all the less because we see that they are good by nature and that we have nothing to guard against but their misuses or excesses — against which the remedies I have explained might suffice: namely, by practising the separation, within ourselves, of the movements of the blood and spirits from the thoughts to which they are habitually joined ¹².

Finally, it is from them alone that all the good and evil of this life depend ¹³.

¹ article 34
² ibid.
³ article 47
⁴ article 50
⁵ ibid.
⁶ article 51
⁷ article 97
⁸ article 107
⁹ article 137
¹⁰ article 141
¹¹ article 212
¹² article 211
¹³ article 212