Emotions and Choice from Boethius to Descartes

by Lagerlund, Henrik; Lagerlund, Henrik; Yrjonsuuri, Mikko

• ISBN13: 9781402009938
• ISBN10: 1402009933
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

The essays in this book give the first comprehensive picture of the medieval development of philosophical theories concerning the nature of emotions and the influence they have on human choice. The historical span reaches from the late ancient to the early modern philosophy, showing in detail how old and new ideas were bred and brought into the Middle Ages, and how they resulted in a genuinely modern perspective in the thought of Descartes. The essays are original contributions by a mixture of established senior scholars and promising young researchers writing on their own specialties. Since the essays look at the medieval theories of the emotions and the will with full awareness of contemporary philosophy of mind, they open up a whole new perspective on medieval philosophy.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Goodness and Rational Choice in the Early Middle Ages	p. 29
Medieval Theories of the Passions of the Soul	p. 49
Weakness of Will: The Plurality of Medieval Explanations	p. 85
Free Will and Self-Control in Peter Olivi	p. 99
Reflections on John Duns Scotus on the Will	p. 129
A Nominalist Ontology of the Passions	p. 155
Buridan's Theory of Free Choice and Its Influence	p. 173
Emotions in Renaissance Humanism: Juan Luis Vives' De anima et vita	p. 205
Late Scholastic Theories of the Passions: Controversies in the Thomist Tradition	p. 229
The Rationality of Cartesian Passions	p. 259
Descartes on the Will and the Power to do Otherwise	p. 279
Bibliography	p. 299
Name Index	p. 317
Subject Index	p. 327
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