Three Dualist Theories of the Passions

Abstract Descartes, Spinoza, and Malebranche each devote a signiHcant amount of attention to the passions of the soul—those passive emotions of joy, sadness, love, hate, hope, despair, boldness, fear, desire, anger, and such. Commentators, especially English-speaking commentators on Descartes and Malebranche, open do not. I think their discussions of the passions deserve more attention. Commentaries on ancient Greek theories of the soul, whether Platonic, Aristotelian, or Stoic, would surely be considered deficient if they ignored the passions or, more generally, moral psychology. It seems to me that understanding dualist theories of the soul—the dualism of minds or thought versus bodies or extension—which is fundamental to Descartes, Spinoza, and Malebranche, also requires understanding their accounts of the passions.