Descartess Moral Perfectionism (Routledge Studies in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy)

This book offers a novel and comprehensive interpretation of Descartes's moral philosophy. In contrast to other influential interpretations, the book argues that the central tenet of his ethical thought is that each person ought to live in the way that is most conducive to their degree of overall perfection. While Descartes's ethical thought has attracted only a very modest amount of attention among scholars, this book demonstrates that it constitutes an important and integral component of his philosophical project as a whole. It argues that Descartes's ethics constitutes a form of moral perfectionism. In the Cartesian picture, we satisfy this requirement of perfection by using our free will well in all our conduct, something which is also necessary for obtaining happiness for ourselves. To be guaranteed happiness, however, we need to acquire the virtue of generosity, which, besides a habit of using one's free will well, entails a habit of being attentive in one's thought to various truths about oneself and about the world we live in. Descartes offers an interesting attempt to make living well depend entirely on ourselves and not on fate or fortune. He also leaves room for the presence of passions within such a life and for acknowledging that even fully virtuous persons' lives may differ in their degrees of overall perfection. Descartes's Moral Perfectionism will appeal to scholars and graduate students working on Descartes, the history of early modern philosophy, and the history of ethics. Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Notes Chapter 1: Good and evil 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The goodness of each thing in itself without reference to anything else 1.3 Goodness in relation to ourselves 1.4 Goodness in relation to ourselves: an alternative interpretation 1.5 Highest goods in relation to ourselves 1.6 Further examples of highest goods 1.7 Evil 1.8 Knowledge of good and evil Notes Chapter 2: Descartes’s conception of virtue 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The will 2.3 A firm and constant resolution in the will 2.4 To carry out all the things which one judges to be best, and to employ all the powers of one’s mind in finding out what these are 2.5 Virtue and knowledge Notes Chapter 3: Descartes’s moral perfectionism 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Method of decision-making vs criterion of right-making features 3.3 Cartesian moral perfectionism 3.3.1 Self and other 3.4 Alternative accounts (I): Descartes as (something of) a stoic 3.5 Alternative accounts (II): Descartes as an Epicurean Notes Chapter 4: Happiness 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Descartes’s account of happiness 4.3 No degrees of happiness 4.3.1 Letter of 4 August 1645 4.3.2 Letter of 18 August 1645 4.4 The good of happiness 4.5 Virtue and happiness 4.5.1 Why living as one ought to do is, at least in practice, necessary for happiness 4.5.2 Is living as one ought to do sufficient for happiness? Notes Chapter 5: Cartesian generosity 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The general function of the passions 5.3 Generosity as a passion 5.4 Generosity as a virtue 5.5 Controlling the passions 5.6 Acquiring Cartesian generosity 5.6.1 The habit 5.6.2 The knowledge Notes Chapter 6: Cartesian generosity, the highest and most perfect morality, and the morale par provision 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Generosity and the highest and most perfect morality 6.2.1 Two fundamentally different ideals? 6.2.2 Generosity as the highest and most perfect morality 6.3 Generosity and the morale par provision 6.3.1 The morale par provision 6.3.2 The status of the morale par provision 6.3.2.1 The maxims of the morale and their justification Notes Bibliography Index