Richard F. Hassing's Books

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

On Descartes’s Passions of the Soul

By: Richard F. Hassing

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Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

On Descartes’s Passions of the Soul

By: Richard F. Hassing

In The Passions of the Soul Descartes proclaims his intention to explain the passions “only as a Physicist,” and titles Part I “About the passions in general, and incidentally about the whole nature of man”—not an incidental item. Two questions orient the present inquiry: What does Descartes mean by “the whole nature of man,” and how does a general theory of the human emotions based on his physics account for it? Not surprisingly, Descartes does not fulfill the letter of his intention; rather, he explains the passions “only [partly] as a Physicist.” The other part of his study—irreducible to any physics—consists in his own analysis of the life of the human being as union of soul and body. The resulting account is an unusual combination of scientific (hypothetico-deductive) psychophysics and prescientific insight into human experience. In it, a quasi-mechanical theory of the impact of imagination on passion and volition is combined with a distinctive emphasis on the human propensity to esteem what we imagine to be great. Human history and therewith “the whole [problematic] nature of man” is constituted in significant measure by the particular and variable objects of esteem. The correction and improvement of our nature is the aim of Descartes’s culminating doctrine of the one thing that is truly estimable: the firm and constant resolution to use well (autonomously) one’s own (individual) powers of cognition and volition. With the return of religious war The Passions of the Soul is newly relevant.

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Page Count

247

Publisher

Lexington Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

149852236X

ISBN 13

9781498522366

Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs

By: Richard F. Hassing

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Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs

By: Richard F. Hassing

Teleology - the inquiry into the goals or goods at which nature, history, God, and human beings aim - is among the most fundamental yet controversial themes in the history of philosophy. Are there ends in nonhuman nature? Does human history have a goal? Do humanly unintended events of great significance express some sort of purpose? Do human beings have ends prior to choice? The essays in this volume address the abiding questions of final causality. The chapters are arranged in historical order from Aristotle through Hegel to contemporary anthropic-principle cosmology.

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289

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CUA Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

081323056X

ISBN 13

9780813230566

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

On Descartes’s Passions of the Soul

By: Richard F. Hassing

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

On Descartes’s Passions of the Soul

By: Richard F. Hassing

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

247

Publisher

Lexington Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

149852236X

ISBN 13

9781498522366

Book's by Richard F. Hassing

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs

Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man

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