Spinoza's Affects From Descartes to Hobbes

This paper sketches how Spinoza's theory of the emotions changed over his career. It begins with a contrast between the theories of the emotions found in Descartes' Passions de l'ame and the accounts of the passions found in a variety of writings by Thomas Hobbes. A comparison of the accounts of the emotions that Spinoza offered in the early Korte Verhandeling (KV) and in the later Ethica then suggests that he moved from an initial commitment to a Cartesian conception of the emotions to a later view more influenced by Hobbes.