Passion and Action is an exploration of the role of the passions in seventeenth-century thought. Susan James offers fresh readings of a broad range of thinkers, including such canonical figures as Hobbes, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Pascal, and Locke, and shows that a full understanding of their philosophies must take account of their interpretations of our affective life. This ground-breaking study throws new light upon the shaping of our ideas about the mind, knowledge, and action, and provides a historical context for burgeoning current debates about the emotions.

Historically, as well as more recently, women's emancipation has been seen in two ways: sometimes as the right to be equal and sometimes as the right to be different. These views have often overlapped and interacted in a variety of guises they have played an important role in both the development of ideas about women and feminism, and the works of political thinkers who are not primarily concerned with women's liberation. This book deals primarily with the meaning and use of these two concepts in the context of gender relations (past and present), but also draw attention to their place in the...

Historically, as well as more recently, women's emancipation has been seen in two ways: sometimes as the right to be equal' and sometimes as the right to be different'. These views have often overlapped and interacted: in a variety of guises they have played an important role in both the development of ideas about women and feminism, and the works of political thinkers by no means primarily concerned with women's liberation. The chapters of this book deal primarily with the meaning and use of these two concepts in the context of gender relations (past and present), but also draw attention to...