Key Arguments

• He defines emotion as a passivity (“passion”) because the mind is passive only insofar as it has inadequate or confused ideas.
• The defining content of the emotion-idea is an affirmation about the body’s force for existence being increased or diminished.
• An affect’s presence functionally reorients attention, determining the order of thought toward one thing rather than another.

Source Quotes

GENERAL DEFINITION OF THE EMOTIONS Emotion, which is called a passivity of the soul, is a confused idea, whereby the mind affirms concerning its body, or any part thereof, a force for existence (existendi vis) greater or less than before, and by the presence of which the mind is determined to think of one thing rather than another. Explanation—I say, first, that emotion or passion of the soul is a confused idea.

GENERAL DEFINITION OF THE EMOTIONS Emotion, which is called a passivity of the soul, is a confused idea, whereby the mind affirms concerning its body, or any part thereof, a force for existence (existendi vis) greater or less than before, and by the presence of which the mind is determined to think of one thing rather than another. Explanation—I say, first, that emotion or passion of the soul is a confused idea. For we have shown that the mind is only passive, in so far as it has inadequate or confused ideas.

Key Concepts

• Emotion, which is called a passivity of the soul, is a confused idea, whereby the mind affirms concerning its body, or any part thereof, a force for existence (existendi vis) greater or less than before, and by the presence of which the mind is determined to think of one thing rather than another.
• I say, first, that emotion or passion of the soul is a confused idea.
• by the presence of which the mind is determined to think of one thing rather than another

Context

Ethics, Part III, General Definition of the Emotions (lines 2883–2905)