Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (May 20, 1932 – September 18, 2020) was a Belgian-born American philosopher known for her work in the philosophy of mind (in particular on the emotions), history of philosophy (especially Aristotle, Spinozaand Descartes), and moral philosophy.
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Amélie Rorty in the context of Passions of the Soul
In his final philosophical treatise, The Passions of the Soul (French: Les Passions de l'âme), completed in 1649 and dedicated to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes contributes to a long tradition of philosophical inquiry into the nature of "the passions". The passions were experiences – now commonly called emotions in the modern period – that had been a subject of debate among philosophers and theologians since the time of Plato.
Notable precursors to Descartes who articulated their own theories of the passions include Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Hobbes.According to Amélie Rorty, the work reflects Descartes' need to reconcile the influence of the passions on otherwise rational beings. This marks a clear point in the advancement of human self-estimation, paralleling the increasingly rational-based scientific method. Descartes affirmed that the passions "are all intrinsically good, and that all we have to avoid is their misuse or their excess" (art. 211).