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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'System of Logic' and 'The Passions of the Soul'

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5 ideas

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / c. Role of emotions

4015	For Descartes passions are God-given preservers of the mind-body union [Descartes, by Taylor,C]
	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.
	From: report of René Descartes (The Passions of the Soul [1649]) by Charles Taylor - Sources of the Self §8
	A reaction: I wonder what Descartes would have made of the theory of evolution?

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / e. Basic emotions

4313	Are there a few primary passions (say, joy, sadness and desire)? [Descartes, by Cottingham]
	Full Idea: Descartes says there are six primary passions (wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness); Spinoza says there are just three (joy, sadness and desire).
	From: report of René Descartes (The Passions of the Soul [1649]) by John Cottingham - The Rationalists p.172
	A reaction: A dubious project. However, it is now agreed that there are a few (six?) basic universal facial expressions, to which these passions may correspond.

23989	There are six primitive passions: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness [Descartes, by Goldie]
	Full Idea: Descartes said there are six primitive passions, namely wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness. The others are either species of these, or composed of them.
	From: report of René Descartes (The Passions of the Soul [1649], 353) by Peter Goldie - The Emotions 4 'Evidence'
	A reaction: [not sure about ref] It's a nice touch to add 'wonder', which doesn't make it onto anyone else's list.

18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 1. Abstract Thought

9080	General conceptions are a necessary preliminary to Induction [Mill]
	Full Idea: Forming general conceptions is a necessary preliminary to Induction.
	From: John Stuart Mill (System of Logic [1843], 4.2.1)
	A reaction: A key link in the framework of empirical philosophies, which gets us from experience to science. Induction is the very process of generalisation. We can't bring a concept like 'evolution' to preliminary observations, so it must be formulated inductively.

9078	The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science [Mill]
	Full Idea: The metaphysical inquiry into the nature and composition of what have been called Abstract Ideas, or in other words, of the notions which answer in the mind to classes and to general names, belongs not to Logic, but to a different science.
	From: John Stuart Mill (System of Logic [1843], 4.2.1)
	A reaction: He doesn't name the science, but the point here seems to be precisely what Frege so vigorously disagreed with. I would say that the state of being 'abstract' has logical aspects, and can be partly described by logic, but that Mill is basically right.