(no subject)
FIRST PART
ON THE PASSIONS IN GENERAL AND, INCIDENTALLY, THE WHOLE NATURE OF MAN
I. That which is a passion with respect to a subject is always an action in some other regard
There is nothing in which the sciences we have from the ancients appear more defective than what they wrote about the passions. Because this is a matter whose content has been keenly sought and which does not seem to be very difficult because everyone feels them in himself, one does not need to take an observation from elsewhere to discover its nature. Yet everything that the ancients have taught is so meager and, for the most part so unbelievable, that I can only hope to approach the truth by avoiding the paths that they followed. This is why I will be obliged to write here {in the same fashion} as if I were discussing a matter that nobody before me had ever dealt with. To begin, I will remark that all that takes place or reoccurs is generally called a passion by philosophers with respect to the subject to which it happens and an action with respect to that which causes it to happen. Thus, although the agent and the patient are often very different, the action and the passion must always be a single thing which has two names because of the two diverse subjects to which it can relate.
II. That in order to know the passions of the soul it’s necessary to distinguish their functions from those of the body
Also I will point out that we are not aware of any subject that acts more immediately against our soul than the body to which it is joined. Consequently, we ought to think that whatever is a passion in the soul is simultaneously an action in the body. Therefore, there is no better way of coming to know our passions than examining the difference between the body and the soul in order to know to which {of the two} we ought to attribute every function that is in us.
III. Which rule we ought to follow in order to do this
We will not encounter any great difficulty if we take care that all we experience to be in us, that we see can also be in inanimate objects, should only be attributed to the body. On the contrary, all that is in us that we cannot conceive as belonging to a body in any way ought to be attributed to our soul.
IV. That warmth and the movement of [our] limbs proceed from the body and thoughts [proceed] from the soul
[B]ecause we do not conceive of the body thinking in any way, we are correct to believe that all kinds of thoughts that are in us belong to the soul. And because we do not doubt that there are soulless• bodies that can move themselves in as many or more ways than we can and that can be as warm or warmer than we (which experience shows us [about] a flame which itself can have more warmth and movement than our limbs), we ought to believe that all the warmth and movement which are in us do not depend on thought at all [but] belong only to the body.
V. That it is an error to believe that the soul gives movement and warmth to the body
In this way, we will avoid a very considerable error into which many have fallen and which I suspect is the primary obstacle that has prevented philosophers until now from {being able to} explaining the passions and the other things that belong to the soul. This error consists in seeing that all dead bodies lack warmth and movement and imagining that it was the absence of the soul that made warmth and movement cease. Thus, philosophers have falsely {lit. incorrectly} believed that our natural warmth and all the movements of our bodies depend on the soul. [I]nstead, they ought to have thought {on the contrary} that our soul only leaves [us] when we die because the warmth ceases and the organs which are used to move the body corrupt.
VI. What difference there is between a living body and a dead body
In order to avoid this error, we will understand that death never happens through the absence of a soul but only because some principle part of the body decays. Let us hold {lit. judge} that the body of a living man differs from that of a dead man in the same way that a watch or other automaton (i.e., another machine which moves by itself), when it is running and it has in itself the corporeal principle of the movements for which it was designed along with all that is required for its action, [differs from] the same watch or other machine when it is broken and the principle of its movement ceases to act.
VII. Brief explanation of the parts of the body and some of their functions
In order to make this more intelligible, I will {now/here} explain in a few words the whole fashion of which the mechanism of our body is composed. There is not anyone who doesn’t already know that in us there is a heart, a brain, a stomach, muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, and similar things. We [all] also know that the food that we eat goes down in[to] the stomach and the intestines from where its liquid flows in[to] the liver and all the veins, mixes with the blood that they contain, and augments its quantity in by that means. Those who have heard anything {lit. talk} at all about medicine know the structure of the heart {lit. how the heart is composed} and how all the blood in the veins can easily flow from the vena cava on the heart’s right side, passes from there into the lungs through the duct which is named the arterial vein, then returns to the lungs on the left side through the duct which is named the venial artery, and finally passes from there into the great artery whose branches spread through the body. All those who have not been completely blinded by the authority of the ancients, and who have wanted to open their eyes in order to examine Hervaeus’s opinion regarding the circulation of blood, do not doubt that all the veins and arteries of the body are like streams through which the blood flows unceasingly and very rapidly while taking its circuit from the heart’s right cavity through the arterial vein whose branches are scattered throughout the whole of the lungs and joined to [the branches] of the venial artery through which it passes from the lungs into the heart’s left side. Then, from there, it goes through the great artery, whose branches, [which are] scattered through[out] the rest of the body, are joined to the branches that carry the same blood, once again, in the right cavity of the heart so that these two cavities are like sluices through which all the blood passes as it makes its complete circuit of the body. Further, we know that all the movements of the limbs depend on the muscles and that the muscles are opposed to one another such that when one becomes shorter, it draws itself to the part of the body to which it is attached which makes the muscle to which it is opposed lengthen at the same time. Then, if {another time} it happens that the latter shortens, the former must lengthen, and it again draws itself towards the part to which it is attached. Finally, we know that all the movements of the muscles, like all of the senses, depend on the nerves which are like small threads or tubes which come from the brain and contain, like the brain, a certain very fine {lit. subtle} air or wind which is named ‘the animal spirits’.
VIII. What is the principle of all these functions
But it is not commonly known how {lit. in what manner} these animal spirits and nerves contribute to the movement and the senses nor what is the corporeal principle which makes them act. It is why, although I have already dealt with this matter in other writings, I will speak succinctly about it here and only allow myself to say that while we are alive, there is a continual warmth in our heart, which is a type of fire that the blood and veins maintain there, and that this fire is the corporeal principle of all the movements of our limbs.
-From Descartes' The Passions of the Soul, trans. me-
ON THE PASSIONS IN GENERAL AND, INCIDENTALLY, THE WHOLE NATURE OF MAN
I. That which is a passion with respect to a subject is always an action in some other regard
There is nothing in which the sciences we have from the ancients appear more defective than what they wrote about the passions. Because this is a matter whose content has been keenly sought and which does not seem to be very difficult because everyone feels them in himself, one does not need to take an observation from elsewhere to discover its nature. Yet everything that the ancients have taught is so meager and, for the most part so unbelievable, that I can only hope to approach the truth by avoiding the paths that they followed. This is why I will be obliged to write here {in the same fashion} as if I were discussing a matter that nobody before me had ever dealt with. To begin, I will remark that all that takes place or reoccurs is generally called a passion by philosophers with respect to the subject to which it happens and an action with respect to that which causes it to happen. Thus, although the agent and the patient are often very different, the action and the passion must always be a single thing which has two names because of the two diverse subjects to which it can relate.
II. That in order to know the passions of the soul it’s necessary to distinguish their functions from those of the body
Also I will point out that we are not aware of any subject that acts more immediately against our soul than the body to which it is joined. Consequently, we ought to think that whatever is a passion in the soul is simultaneously an action in the body. Therefore, there is no better way of coming to know our passions than examining the difference between the body and the soul in order to know to which {of the two} we ought to attribute every function that is in us.
III. Which rule we ought to follow in order to do this
We will not encounter any great difficulty if we take care that all we experience to be in us, that we see can also be in inanimate objects, should only be attributed to the body. On the contrary, all that is in us that we cannot conceive as belonging to a body in any way ought to be attributed to our soul.
IV. That warmth and the movement of [our] limbs proceed from the body and thoughts [proceed] from the soul
[B]ecause we do not conceive of the body thinking in any way, we are correct to believe that all kinds of thoughts that are in us belong to the soul. And because we do not doubt that there are soulless• bodies that can move themselves in as many or more ways than we can and that can be as warm or warmer than we (which experience shows us [about] a flame which itself can have more warmth and movement than our limbs), we ought to believe that all the warmth and movement which are in us do not depend on thought at all [but] belong only to the body.
V. That it is an error to believe that the soul gives movement and warmth to the body
In this way, we will avoid a very considerable error into which many have fallen and which I suspect is the primary obstacle that has prevented philosophers until now from {being able to} explaining the passions and the other things that belong to the soul. This error consists in seeing that all dead bodies lack warmth and movement and imagining that it was the absence of the soul that made warmth and movement cease. Thus, philosophers have falsely {lit. incorrectly} believed that our natural warmth and all the movements of our bodies depend on the soul. [I]nstead, they ought to have thought {on the contrary} that our soul only leaves [us] when we die because the warmth ceases and the organs which are used to move the body corrupt.
VI. What difference there is between a living body and a dead body
In order to avoid this error, we will understand that death never happens through the absence of a soul but only because some principle part of the body decays. Let us hold {lit. judge} that the body of a living man differs from that of a dead man in the same way that a watch or other automaton (i.e., another machine which moves by itself), when it is running and it has in itself the corporeal principle of the movements for which it was designed along with all that is required for its action, [differs from] the same watch or other machine when it is broken and the principle of its movement ceases to act.
VII. Brief explanation of the parts of the body and some of their functions
In order to make this more intelligible, I will {now/here} explain in a few words the whole fashion of which the mechanism of our body is composed. There is not anyone who doesn’t already know that in us there is a heart, a brain, a stomach, muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, and similar things. We [all] also know that the food that we eat goes down in[to] the stomach and the intestines from where its liquid flows in[to] the liver and all the veins, mixes with the blood that they contain, and augments its quantity in by that means. Those who have heard anything {lit. talk} at all about medicine know the structure of the heart {lit. how the heart is composed} and how all the blood in the veins can easily flow from the vena cava on the heart’s right side, passes from there into the lungs through the duct which is named the arterial vein, then returns to the lungs on the left side through the duct which is named the venial artery, and finally passes from there into the great artery whose branches spread through the body. All those who have not been completely blinded by the authority of the ancients, and who have wanted to open their eyes in order to examine Hervaeus’s opinion regarding the circulation of blood, do not doubt that all the veins and arteries of the body are like streams through which the blood flows unceasingly and very rapidly while taking its circuit from the heart’s right cavity through the arterial vein whose branches are scattered throughout the whole of the lungs and joined to [the branches] of the venial artery through which it passes from the lungs into the heart’s left side. Then, from there, it goes through the great artery, whose branches, [which are] scattered through[out] the rest of the body, are joined to the branches that carry the same blood, once again, in the right cavity of the heart so that these two cavities are like sluices through which all the blood passes as it makes its complete circuit of the body. Further, we know that all the movements of the limbs depend on the muscles and that the muscles are opposed to one another such that when one becomes shorter, it draws itself to the part of the body to which it is attached which makes the muscle to which it is opposed lengthen at the same time. Then, if {another time} it happens that the latter shortens, the former must lengthen, and it again draws itself towards the part to which it is attached. Finally, we know that all the movements of the muscles, like all of the senses, depend on the nerves which are like small threads or tubes which come from the brain and contain, like the brain, a certain very fine {lit. subtle} air or wind which is named ‘the animal spirits’.
VIII. What is the principle of all these functions
But it is not commonly known how {lit. in what manner} these animal spirits and nerves contribute to the movement and the senses nor what is the corporeal principle which makes them act. It is why, although I have already dealt with this matter in other writings, I will speak succinctly about it here and only allow myself to say that while we are alive, there is a continual warmth in our heart, which is a type of fire that the blood and veins maintain there, and that this fire is the corporeal principle of all the movements of our limbs.
-From Descartes' The Passions of the Soul, trans. me-