Passiones animae ... nunc autem in exterorum gratiam Latina civitate donate ab H.D.M. I.V.L. [Henricus des Marets Iuris Utriusque Licentiatus]

Amsterdam: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1650. FIRST LATIN EDITION. First Latin edition, printed in French the year before. This, the last book authored by Descartes and written for Queen Christina of Sweden, discusses psychology, ethics and the relationship between mind and body. “Descartes believed the soul to be a definite entity, giving rise to thoughts, feelings, and acts of volition. He was one of the first to regard the brain as an an organ integrating the functions of mind and body” (G&M).

Descartes made an essential distinction between the soul as the divinely-endowed seat of consciousness, will and rational thought, and the body as a machine or automaton subject to the laws of physics, and only indirectly controlled by the soul through the nerves. Using this dualistic model, he was able to make the important distinction between voluntary and involuntary actions.

“Cartesian physiology and philosophy had a powerful influence on the thinking of such men as Robert Hooke, Giovanni Borelli, Jan Swammerdam, and Thomas Willis. Descartes’ theories helped to explain in understandable mechanistic terms the more puzzling problems of human physiology during a time when scientific research was expanding rapidly” (Heirs).

DSB IV, pp. 55 - 65; Garrison & Morton, 4965 (Fr. ed.); Heirs of Hippocrates, 467; Norman, 625 (Fr. ed.); Wellcome II, p. 453.