‘Light Accompanied with Vital Heat’: Affection and Intellect in the Thought of Richard Baxter

Abstract

Should we value emotions or treat them with caution? Humanity has wrestled with this question since the time of antiquity, and the ambivalent answers that emerged continued in the early modern world. On the one hand, most conventional treatments affirmed that the passions performed an essential function in motivating behaviours that were necessary to human survival and flourishing. On the other hand, there was an alertness to the dangers they posed, that to grant the passions a free hand could enslave or corrupt the soul and thereby undermine well-being and morality.2 Central to these discussions was the place of reason in moderating the passions and promoting virtue. The Stoics held that the good life was a state of ataraxia, or tranquillity, attained when all passion was overcome by reason. For the Aristotelians, the passions contributed to virtue, but required the direction of reason to restrain them and ensure they responded appropriately to their objects. Then there was the perspective of the Platonists, who believed that some emotional responses should be intense while others should not be felt at all.3 Philosophical enquiry in the early modern period drew upon this classical heritage, but made various modifications in the light of ongoing intellectual developments.4