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Full Idea
Descartes sees passions not as opinions, but as functional devices that the Creator has designed for us to help preserve the body-soul substantial union.
Gist of Idea
For Descartes passions are God-given preservers of the mind-body union
Source
report of René Descartes (The Passions of the Soul [1649]) by Charles Taylor - Sources of the Self §8
Book Ref
Taylor,Charles: 'Sources of the Self' [CUP 1992], p.150
A Reaction
I wonder what Descartes would have made of the theory of evolution?
| 4015 | For Descartes passions are God-given preservers of the mind-body union [Descartes, by Taylor,C] |
| 4313 | Are there a few primary passions (say, joy, sadness and desire)? [Descartes, by Cottingham] |
| 4016 | Descartes makes strength of will the central virtue [Descartes, by Taylor,C] |
| 3654 | The pineal gland links soul to body, and unites the two symmetrical sides of the body [Descartes, by PG] |
| 20037 | Merely willing to walk leads to our walking [Descartes] |
| 23989 | There are six primitive passions: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness [Descartes, by Goldie] |
| 16763 | We don't die because the soul departs; the soul departs because the organs cease functioning [Descartes] |