'Columbia University Libraries/Information Services'
Doi
Abstract
"Deliberations about moral action still tend to be connected, however subtly, to the
Cartesian notion of a self split between steady, supervising reason - imbued with knowledge
of what constitutes right action - and fluctuating passion - itself ‘right’ insofar as a beautiful
object, say, might ‘rightly’ trigger the desire to possess it. But this Platonic, divided self is not
as clear-cut in its duality as stereotypical notions of the rationalist, post-Cartesian,
Enlightenment era would have it.