Descartes and Elisabeth of Bohemia on Emotions and Emotional Control

Ariane Schneck

In this talk, Ariane Schneck will add to these efforts by focusing on the later, lesser-known parts of the correspondence between Descartes and Elisabeth. In these letters, in which they discuss classical moral-ethical themes like virtue, the role of emotions and the happy life, Elisabeth not only objects to Descartes’s claims, but she does so from her own distinctive philosophical position that can be reconstructed from her remarks. Moreover, Schneck will show that Elisabeth’s arguments influenced Descartes’s thinking significantly and that he even changed some of his central claims due to Elisabeth’s interventions. This talk thus aims to establish not only Elisabeth as a genuine thinker but also as a powerful female philosopher who exerted historical influence.

Zoom link: https://aucegypt.zoom.us/s/93446159002