Descartes and the Passionate Mind

by Deborah J. Brown

Descartes is often accused of having fragmented the human being into two independent substances, mind and body, with no clear strategy for explaining the apparent unity of human experience. Deborah Brown argues that, contrary to this view, Descartes did in fact have a conception of a single, integrated human being, and that in his view this conception is crucial to the success of human beings as rational and moral agents and as practitioners of science. The passions are pivotal in this, and in a rich and wide-ranging discussion she examines Descartes' place in the tradition of thought about the passions, the metaphysics of actions and passions, sensory representation, and Descartes' account of self-mastery and virtue. Her study is an important and original reading not only of Descartes' account of mind-body unity but also of his theory of mind.

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine book on why Descartes is not the dualist we think of him as. Particularly interesting are chapters 6-8, which are on Descartes's ethics. Brown particularly utilises the correspondance with Princess Elisabeth and the Passions text well. This book will change the way you think about Descartes!