25/06/2018 Passions (philosophy) - Wikipedia

Passions (philosophy)
In philosophy and religion the passions are the instinctive, emotional, primitive drives in a human being (including,
for example, lust, anger, aggression and jealousy) which a human being must restrain, channel, develop and sublimate
in order to be possessed of wisdom. Passions in religion and philosophy have a different connotation from the popular
concept of passion which is generally seen as a positive emotion. The philosophical notion of passion, in contrast, is
identified with innate or biologically driven emotional states regarded in ancient philosophies and the great religions
as being the basis for deadly sins and seen as leading to various social and spiritual ills such as unstable relationships,
broken marriages, lack of social integration, psychological disorders and other problems. In the philosophical tradition
of the west passion is often placed in opposition to reason. Reason is advocated in the control of passion, something
seen as desirable and necessary for the development of a mature, civilized human being. This is achieved by the
cultivation of virtue. Four virtues in particular have long been seen as of especial value in this regard.

The majority of philosophies and religions advocate at the very least tempering the passions to keep them within
acceptable bounds. However most of the great religions recommend both the restraint and the transformation of the
passions to the point where they no longer arise. This is true of Christianity (a religion strongly influenced by both
Stoicism and Cynicism), Jainism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. The institution of the monastery within various
religions is a means by which human beings may temporarily or permanently seclude themselves from circumstances
exacerbating the arising of passion and provide a supportive environment for doing spiritual work.

Contemporary philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger has developed a view of the passions that disassociates them
from human nature, and instead gives them a formless life that serve in our noninstrumental dealings with each other.
Rather than the guiding force behind our relations with the world, they organize and are organized around the need
and danger that is at the heart of our relations with each other. In this way, Unger rejects the traditional view of the
passions as something counter to reason and which are associated with certain expressions, rather he sees them at the
service of reason and their expression formed within certain contexts.[1]

Contents
Background
Spinoza
See also
References
External links

Background
The subject of the passions has long been a consideration in Western philosophy. According to European philosopher
Michel Meyer, they have aroused harsh judgments as the representation of a force of excess and lawlessness in
humanity that produces troubling, confusing paradoxes. Meyer sees philosophers as having treated the passions as a
given expression of human nature, leaving the question of whether the passions "torture people because it blinds them,
or, on the contrary, does it permit them to apprehend who and what we really are?"[2]

Spinoza
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The seventeenth century Dutch philosopher Spinoza contrasted "action" with "passion," as well as the state of being
"active" with the state of being "passive." A passion, in his view, happened when external events affect us partially such
that we have confused ideas about these events and their causes. A "passive" state is when we experience an emotion
which Spinoza regarded as a "passivity of the soul."[3] The body's power is increased or diminished. Emotions are
bodily changes plus ideas about these changes which can help or hurt a human.[3] It happens when the bodily changes
we experience are caused primarily by external forces or by a mix of external and internal forces. Spinoza argued that it
was much better for the individual himself to be the only adequate cause of bodily changes, and to act based on an
adequate understanding of causes-and-effects with ideas of these changes logically related to each other and to reality.
When this happened the person is "active," and Spinoza described the ideas as adequate. But most of the time, this
does not happen, and Spinoza, along with Freud, saw emotions as more powerful than reason. Spinoza tried to live the
life of reason which he advocated.[4][5][6]

See also
Passion: An Essay on Personality
Baruch Spinoza
Philosophy of Spinoza
Rene Descartes' Passions of the Soul

References
1. Unger, Roberto Mangabeira (1986). Passion: An Essay on Personality. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-02-933180-
3.
2. Michel Meyer, Philosophy and the Passions, a translation of Le Philosophe et les passions *(Livre de poche),
Penn State Press, 2000. Preface, introduction and translation by Robert F. Barsky, website (http://www.psupress.o
rg/books/titles/0-271-02031-8.html)
3. Spinoza; R.H.M. Elwes (translator) 1883 (1883). "DEFINITIONS. ON THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE
EMOTIONS" (http://frank.mtsu.edu/~rbombard/RB/Spinoza/ethica3.html). MTSU Philosophy WebWorks.
Retrieved 2009-12-09. "By emotion I mean the modifications of the body, whereby the active power of the said
body is increased or diminished, aided or constrained, and also the ideas of such modifications. N.B. If we can be
the adequate cause of any of these modifications, I then call the emotion an activity, otherwise I call it a passion,
or state wherein the mind is passive."
4. Phelps, M. Stuart (Feb 21, 1877). "Spinoza. Oration by M. Ernest Renan, delivered at the Hague, Feb. 21, 1877
by Translated by M. Stuart Phelps [pp. 763-776]" (http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=nwn
g;cc=nwng;rgn=full%20text;idno=nwng0037-6;didno=nwng0037-6;view=image;seq=00777;node=nwng0037-6%3
A1). New Englander and Yale Review Volume 0037 Issue 147 (November 1878). Retrieved 2009-09-08.
5. "HOW SPINOZA LIVED" (https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9407E0DD143EE73BBC4F52DFB566
8383669FDE). The New York Times. March 17, 1878. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
6. "NEW LIGHT ON SPINOZA -- Joseph Freudenthal's Book, Published in German, Gives Facts" (https://pqasb.pqar
chiver.com/chicagotribune/access/427142411.html?dids=427142411:427142411&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type
=historic&date=Nov+19%2C+1899&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=NEW+LIGHT+ON+SPINOZA.&pqatl=g
oogle). The Chicago Tribune. Nov 19, 1899. Retrieved 2009-09-08.

External links
Michel Meyer, Philosophy and the Passions (http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02031-8.html), translated
and introduced by Robert F. Barsky.

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