The Definition of the Passions of the Soul

27. The Definition of the Passions of the Soul

The Passions of the Soul are:

• perceptions, feelings, or emotions of the soul that refer to the soul
• caused, sustained, and fortified by the movement of the animal spirits.

28. Passions as Soul-Perceptions

Perceptions signifies all thoughts that are not actions of the soul or the willpower.

Perceptions are not evident knowledge.

The people most agitated by their passions are those who do not know the nature of those passions.

The close alliance between the soul and the body renders the Passions confused and obscure.

Passions can also be called feelings because they:

• are received in the soul in the same way as the objects of the external senses, and
• are not otherwise known by it.

But they can be even better called emotions of the soul.

This is because:

• “emotion” can be attributed to all the changes that happen in the soul, such as all the thoughts that come to it.
• the passions lead to thoughts that can most strongly agitate and shake the soul

29. Passions are from the Movement of the Animal Spirits

Passions particularly refer to the soul to distinguish them from other feelings that are referred to:

• external bodily perceptions such as smells, sounds, colors
• internal bodily perceptions such as hunger, thirst, pain.

Passions are caused, sustained, and fortified by some movement of the animal spirits.

This is to distinguish them from our willpower.

Willpower is also an emotion of the soul.

• But it is caused by the soul itself.*

30. The Soul is United to All Parts of the Body Conjointly

The soul is truly joined to the whole body.

The body is one and indivisible due to the arrangement of its organs.

These organs are so interrelated that when any one of them is removed, it renders the whole body defective.

The soul has no relation to extension, dimensions, or other properties of the matter that makes up the body.

The soul is related only to the entire assemblage of its organs.

We cannot conceive of 1/2 or 1/3 of a soul, nor the space it occupies.

The soul:

• does not become smaller when some part of the body is removed
• separates entirely when the assemblage of its organs is dissolved.

31. The Soul Exercises Its Functions in the Pineal Gland Most Particularly

The pineal gland is in the middle of the brain’s substance.

• It is suspended above the channel through which the animal spirits in its anterior cavities communicate with those in the posterior cavities.

The smallest movements in it can greatly change the course of these spirits.

• Conversely, the smallest changes in the course of the spirits can greatly change this gland’s movements.

32. How We Know that This Gland is the Principal Seat of the Soul

This is because the other parts of our brain are all double, just as we have:

• 2 eyes
• 2 hands
• 2 ears
• all our external sense organs being double.

But we have only a single thought of the same thing at the same time.

Then, there must be a place where the two images from the two eyes, or the other impressions from our senses, unite into one before they reach the soul, so that they represent one obect instead of two.

These images or other impressions unite in this gland through the mediation of the animal spirits that fill the cavities of the brain.

There is no other place in the body where they can be united in this way except in this gland.