The Passions of the Soul, Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Theories of Emotion in Seventeenth-Century England

This dissertation examines how theories of the passions of the soul developed over the course of the seventeenth century in England. It investigates how changes in the natural philosophy and medicine of the period influenced such theories and pays particular attention to the way emotions were related to new ideas about the body and soul.

I argue that topics often at the margins of the history of philosophy – including medicine, alchemy, natural magic and vitalist theories of active matter – played an important role in the development of theories of emotion during the seventeenth century. In doing so, I attempt to both build upon and revise recent scholarship on early modern emotions. Firstly, I call into question a recently established narrative in the history of philosophy which primarily sees seventeenth-century theories of emotion as moving away from a Scholastic Aristotelian account towards a new set of theories based on the mechanical philosophy – a shift that can be seen to reflect the wider natural philosophical changes of the era. While this transition certainly took place, I maintain that this linear narrative tells only part of the story, and that during the same period there existed many alternative intellectual traditions which also shaped the creation of new theories of the passions. Secondly, I aim to add detail to what is often an oversimplified and incomplete account of the passions in relation to the medicine of the period. In the first chapter, I attempt to clarify a common misconception regarding the relationship between the humours of the body and the passions of the soul. In subsequent chapters I show how post-humoral medical paradigms, such as chemical and mechanical frameworks, as well as advances in anatomy influenced the formation of new theories of emotion during the seventeenth century.

Recent scholarship in the history of science has shown how alchemy, natural magic and theories of active matter became particularly popular in England in the seventeenth century. Over the course of this dissertation, I show how major and minor figures of the period in England drew upon these traditions, as well as new ideas in medicine, when they came to formulate their original accounts of the passions. Individuals whose writings I examine include Thomas Wright, Francis Bacon, Kenelm Digby, Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Willis and Walter Charleton.

This dissertation draws upon scholarship across a variety of disciplines including the history of philosophy, literary studies, the history of science, the history of emotions and the history of medicine. Although it is a study intellectual history, it endeavours to offer a scholarly contribution which may be of use across all the previously mentioned disciplines.