The Passions of the soul and Descartes's machine psychology

46Citations
Citations of this article
58Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

Descartes developed an elaborate theory of animal physiology that he used to explain functionally organized, situationally adapted behavior in both human and nonhuman animals. Although he restricted true mentality to the human soul, I argue that he developed a purely mechanistic (or material) 'psychology' of sensory, motor, and low-level cognitive functions. In effect, he sought to mechanize the offices of the Aristotelian sensitive soul. He described the basic mechanisms in the Treatise on man, which he summarized in the Discourse. However, the Passions of the soul contains his most ambitious claims for purely material brain processes. These claims arise in abstract discussions of the functions of the passions and in illustrations of those functions. Accordingly, after providing an intellectual context for Descartes's theory of the passions, especially by comparison with that of Thomas Aquinas, I examine its 'machine psychology', including the role of habituation and association. I contend that Descartes put forth what may reasonably be called a 'psychology' of the unensouled animal body and, correspondingly, of the human body when the soul does not intervene. He thus conceptually distinguished a mechanistically explicable sensory and motor psychology, common to nonhuman and human animals, from true mentality involving higher cognition and volition and requiring (in his view) an immaterial mind. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Hatfield, G. (2007). The Passions of the soul and Descartes’s machine psychology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 38(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2006.12.015

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free