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Overcoming Emotions, Conquering Fate: Reflections on Descartes’ Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Supakwadee Amatayakul
Supakwadee Amatayakul*
Affiliation:
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
*
Supakwadee Amatayakul, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper offers a reconstruction of Descartes's theory of the emotions, with special focus on the virtue “generosity” (générosité) which he proposed as the master virtue to help humans manage and control their desires so that they can achieve the highest level of happiness which transcends the unpredictability and arbitrariness of fate. It first provides an analysis of Descartes's notion of “divine providence,” “vain desires,” and “regret;” then proceeds to offer an investigation of “générosité” both as an emotion and as a virtue; and concludes with an examination of “générosité” as a tool to master and control the emotions.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 60 , Issue 1: Universalism in a Multicultural World , February 2013 , pp. 78 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2014

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