Cartesian Générosité and Its Antecedents
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Moriarty, Michael https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3604-1627
Abstract
The chapter contains an exposition of Descartes’s ethics, the keystone of which is the concept of générosité. This incorporates both a cognitive state (the knowledge that nothing belongs to us but the use of our free will, and that nothing but the good or bad use of our free will is worthy of praise or blame) and a disposition of will, a determination always to act in accordance with our judgement of what is best. The concept is discussed in relation both to Aristotle’s conception of magnanimity and to the Stoic ethics of Epictetus, but also in relation to the use of the term in literary texts of the time, the plays of Pierre Corneille, and the stories of Jean-Pierre Camus.
Description
Title
Cartesian Générosité and Its Antecedents
Keywords
Descartes, Moral philosophy, Magnanimity, Aristotle, Epictetus, Pierre Corneille, Jean-Pierre Camus
Is Part Of
The Measure of Greatness
Book type
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publisher DOI
ISBN
9780198840688