Il governo delle passioni tra separazione e immanenza

The paper sets out to bring into focus some philosophical implications of the government of the passions as this is presented in Descartes' Les Passions de l'ame and in Spinoza's Ethica. It does not, however, tackle the issue straightforwardly, but by means of a contemporary frame of reference, that established by Michel Foucault in his late writings on the government of the self. It is argued that this frame of reference provides useful conceptual tools for an analysis of the different ways in which Descartes and Spinoza conceive the relation between use and maitrise.