THE BRAIN AND THE FACE IN THE PASSIONS OF DESCARTES' SOUL: BETWEEN ANALOGY AND CAUSALITY

Abstract

As Jean-Luc Marion has shown in a series of studies, the use of the concept of analogy, in the context of Descartes’ philosophy, is not accomplished without it coming into conflict with the tendency to eliminate it as much as possible in favor of the concept of efficient causality. In this paper, Marion’s interpretation is extended to the Cartesian theory of the external signs of the passions, with the intention of showing how the relationship between the passions and such signs must be understood as a kind of analogical relation.