Passions (philosophy)

Passions (philosophy)

Passion, or the passions, is a philosophical concept. It is different from popular connotations of passion, which are associated with notions of romance, and which is generally seen as a positive emotion. The philosophical notion, in contrast, is identified with an innate or biologically driven emotional state such as anger, greed, lust, or other deadly sins. In the philosophical sense, the passions can lead to social or spiritual ills, such as punishment from God in Abrahamic faiths, the brutal state of nature presented by Hobbes, or the recurrence of karma in dharmic faith. The passions are often used as foils to advocate the pursuit of virtue, the use of reason, dedication to the principles of a faith or other idealistic principles. Different philosophies approach the passions in a number of ways, from the full indulgence of hedonism and nihilism to the forms of moderation found in philosophies like Epicureanism and conventional religions, to the strict abnegation or rejection espoused by Stoicism, Cynicism, and many types of religious monasticism, especially in certain forms of Buddhism, Gnosticism and Jainism. Contemporary philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger has developed a view of the passions that disassociates them from human nature, and instead gives them a formless life that serve in our noninstrumental dealings with each other. Rather than the guiding force behind our relations with the world, they organize and are organized around the need and danger that is at the heart of our relations with each other. In this way, Unger rejects the traditional view of the passions as something counter to reason and which are associated with certain expressions, rather he sees them at the service of reason and their expression formed within certain contexts.