The Drama of Cartesian Morality

One of the expected fruits of Descartes\u27 philosophical enterprise is the highest and most perfect moral system , a system which, organically developed from its metaphysical and physical foundations, will provide the moral agent with direction and purpose in each of life\u27s contingencies. Yet, Descartes\u27 published work contains no such moral system, and commentators have generally agreed that Descartes has entered the history of philosophy as perhaps the only systematic philosopher of the first rank who failed to provide any methodical treatment of moral problems . In this dissertation, I contend that through a careful investigation of primarily Descartes\u27 Correspondence and his final treatise, The Passions of the Soul, it is possible to identify the framework of a working ethical system. While Descartes\u27 metaphysics are remarkable for their insistence on indubitably clear and distinct principles, his ethic is equally remarkable in its conclusion that indubitably certain, inviolable principles are unavailable in the realm of morals and human activity. Virtue is not defined with reference to the results of one\u27s actions, nor to one\u27s faithful adherence to a set of rationally derived moral directives, but rather is defined as the constant resolution to put into action the directives of one\u27s best intellectual evaluation. At the same time, one must always recognize that in the realm of morals, one\u27s best intellectual evaluation may be insufficient or incorrect. Hence, virtue consists in the moral attitude with which one lives one\u27s life, the psychological conviction that one has always resolutely acted upon the best intellectual activity of which one is capable. The development of Descartes\u27 ethic is traced beginning with the formation of the Cartesian method, as well as the distinction between metaphysical and moral certainty. Through an analysis of the provisional morality of the Discourse, and an investigation of the substantial union of mind and body in the Meditations and Correspondence, it is shown why the moral system derived from Cartesian metaphysics and physics must necessarily lack metaphysically clear and distinct principles. Finally, the specific nature of Cartesian morality is developed through a detailed investigation of relevant letters from the Correspondence, as well as The Passions of the Soul