May we plan to conduct our everyday life without referring to any kind of emotion or passion? Or, more radically, may we suppose that there is a philosophical theory claiming to either eliminate all affections or to at least control them thanks to a strong and prescriptively binding use of a form of rationality? Against the background of such dogmatic presuppositions, what about Pyrrhonists? Do they really ignore the multifarious, difficult, and complex web of all those passions and emotions that crowd and sometimes influence or change the course of our everyday life? If we carefully analyze Sextus Empiricus’s rich corpus, we find that he examines the ethical role, moral weight, and operative function of emotional attitudes. Accordingly, in some relevant passages on which I shall focus my attention, Sextus considers the passionate elements of our agency in order to show at least two important features of the Pyrrhonian moral stance: 1. the existence and pertinence of a ‘theoretical impassivity’, which is however limited to the realm of opinions; and 2. the plain acceptance of some natural affections, defended against the background of a new idea of behaviouristic and pragmatic dispositions.

Passions, affections, and emotions: a coherent pyrrhonian approach / Spinelli, Emidio. - In: SKÉPSIS. - ISSN 1981-4194. - 20:(2020), pp. 20-30.

Passions, affections, and emotions: a coherent pyrrhonian approach

Emidio Spinelli
2020

Abstract

May we plan to conduct our everyday life without referring to any kind of emotion or passion? Or, more radically, may we suppose that there is a philosophical theory claiming to either eliminate all affections or to at least control them thanks to a strong and prescriptively binding use of a form of rationality? Against the background of such dogmatic presuppositions, what about Pyrrhonists? Do they really ignore the multifarious, difficult, and complex web of all those passions and emotions that crowd and sometimes influence or change the course of our everyday life? If we carefully analyze Sextus Empiricus’s rich corpus, we find that he examines the ethical role, moral weight, and operative function of emotional attitudes. Accordingly, in some relevant passages on which I shall focus my attention, Sextus considers the passionate elements of our agency in order to show at least two important features of the Pyrrhonian moral stance: 1. the existence and pertinence of a ‘theoretical impassivity’, which is however limited to the realm of opinions; and 2. the plain acceptance of some natural affections, defended against the background of a new idea of behaviouristic and pragmatic dispositions.
2020
Sextus Empiricus; ancient scepricism; passions; emotions; ethics
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Passions, affections, and emotions: a coherent pyrrhonian approach / Spinelli, Emidio. - In: SKÉPSIS. - ISSN 1981-4194. - 20:(2020), pp. 20-30.
File allegati a questo prodotto
File Dimensione Formato  
Spinelli_Passions-and-emotions.pdf

solo gestori archivio

Tipologia: Versione editoriale (versione pubblicata con il layout dell'editore)
Licenza: Tutti i diritti riservati (All rights reserved)
Dimensione 311.61 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
311.61 kB Adobe PDF   Contatta l'autore

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1380706
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact