The Power of the Soul over its Passions

45. The Power of the Soul over its Passions

Our passions cannot be directly excited or removed by our willpower.

However, our passions can be influenced indirectly by ideas that are:

• associated with the passions that we want to have, and
• contrary to the passions that we wish to reject

Therefore, to remove fear, we cannot merely want to be fearless.

We must consider reasons, objects, or examples that persuade us that:

• the danger is not great
• there is more safety in defense than in flight
• we will gain glory from victory, and regret and shame from fleeing

46. Why the Soul Cannot Fully Control Its Passions

The soul cannot quickly change or stop its passions.

This is why I defined passions as being caused, maintained, and strengthened by movements of the spirits.

This is because the passions are accompanied by some emotion:

• in the heart and
• consequently in all the blood and spirits.

Until this emotion ends, the spirits linger in our thoughts in the same way that sensory objects persist while being sensed. *

The soul can avoid hearing a small noise or feeling a slight pain by focusing intensely on something else.

• But it cannot avoid hearing thunder or feeling the fire burning the hand.

The soul can easily overcome minor passions.

But the stronger ones can only be overcome after the emotion of the blood and spirits is calmed.

The most the willpower* can do while this emotion is vigorous is:

• to not consent to its effects
• to restrain several of the movements it incites in the body.

For example:

• if anger raises the hand to strike, the willpower can usually hold it back
• if fear incites the legs to flee, the willpower can stop them

47. The Conflicts between the Lower and Higher Parts of the Soul

The lower part of the soul is of the natural appetites and is called sensitive.*

The higher part is of the will and is called rational.

The conflicts between them is only due to the opposition between the movements of:

• the animal spirits in the body and
• the soul by its will

These are excited simultaneously in the [pineal] gland.

There is only one soul within us. This soul has no diversity of parts.

The same soul that is sensitive is also rational, and all its appetites are wills.

The error of attributing different characters to it, often contrary to each other, comes from not clearly distinguishing the soul’s functions from those of the body.*

Everything that opposes our reason comes from the functions of the body.

Thus, the only conflict here is that the pineal gland can be pushed:

• from one side by the soul and
• from the other by the animal spirits, which are merely bodies.

Often, these 2 impulses are contrary.

The stronger one prevents the effect of the other.

There are 2 kinds of movements excited by the spirits in the gland:

1. Some relay to the soul the impressions of the objects that move the senses or those in the brain.

These make no effort on the soul’s will.

These often prevent the actions of the soul or the soul prevents them. But no combat happens because they are not directly contrary.

2. Others relay to the soul, those impressions that cause passions

These make some effort on the soul.

Combat here happens only between the passions and the wills that oppose them.

• The spirits make an effort to push the gland to cause the soul to desire something.
• The soul makes an effort to repel it by the will.

What primarily makes this combat visible is that

The will lacks the power to directly excite passions. It is forced to use ingenuity and apply itself to considering various things successively.

The soul might have the strength to momentarily change the course of the spirits.

But the soul might then have less strength for the next spirits which resume immediately afterwards. This happens when the previous disposition in the nerves, heart, and blood is not changed.

This makes the combat visible and makes the soul feel almost simultaneously driven to desire and not desire the same thing.

This has led to the notion of imagining 2 powers in the soul that are in conflict.

Often, the same cause that excites a passion in the soul also excites certain movements in the body which the soul tries to stop as soon as it notices them.

For example, a fearful event causes:

• the animal spirits to enter the muscles to move the legs and flee
• the will to be brave to stop those spirits.