Passions et Radicalités : Nouvelles formulations et dynamique sociétale

Abstract

It is a conceptual approach to the notion of passion, its evolution over time. The methodology is based on the analysis of original texts and the search for terms and themes that persist in contemporary thought. The author analyses the appearance of the link between passion and madness since ancient philosophers and the persistence of the relationship to reason and subcategories of passions, such as hatred and can inform terrorism-related radicalizations. The author analyses the appearance of the link between passion and madness from ancient philosophers and the persistence of the relationship to the reason of subcategories of passions such as hatred and radicalities. Initially focused on the individual, we see the extension of its use towards the group with the notion of social passion. An affective state dominating the life of an individual's mind, passion is subsequently analyzed successively as subordinate to reason and likely to become a form of madness among the Stoics. The theological–political power will cause them to be regarded as attitudes of incapacity and disobedience to the divine law. Viewed first as an opinion, the passage to the medical and alienist current leads to the characterization of nosographic entity before the particular context of radical thoughts and the questioning of religious and philosophical radicalities is emphasized. The analyses of doctors and alienists will reflect the conceptions of their time but will gradually emerge from the religious context. The relation to the rational and the true will be restored in the analysis of the delusions in the 19th century. The analysis of radical thoughts and radicalities will be late and will include the passage from individual passions to collective passions and social passions.