Descartes’ Theory of the Soul: An Educational Reassessment

Descartes’ The Passions of the Soul is often regarded as an affective theory that deals with human emotions and the ways in which they may be regulated. However, the ‘passions’ that Descartes reveals in this work correspond to a particular dimension of human thought. For Descartes, thought is the function of the soul, which he divides into two aspects: the action of the soul, which is volition, and the passion of the soul, which is passion. Volition is thought belonging solely to the soul itself, whereas passions are the perceptions or knowledge represented in the soul under the influence of the body, and especially those that arise in the soul through the mediation of volition. Volition is the faculty of the knowledge which God gave us and represents the ideal standard of knowledge. Passions, by contrast, are the perceptions or knowledge that is represented to us under the influence of bodily operations. According to Descartes’ claim that the human soul is ‘always a single thing’, passions are not essentially different from volition. Rather, passions are thought that realizes the divine will to a certain degree, depending on the extent of knowledge each individual has acquired. From this perspective, passions correspond to the dynamic aspects of the mind—that is, the manifold operations that unfold within it. Descartes’ assertion that human perception is made possible by divine power thus evokes a religious sentiment: that we are bound to live in willing accordance with the will of God.