Condividere il patire. Descartes e Spinoza in dialogo con la tradizione stoica e cristiana

Abstract. Share the Suffering. Descartes and Spinoza in Dialogue with the Stoic and Christian Tradition. In the evaluation of human passions, compassion has always been among the most controversial, declined through several lexical variants (pietas, misericordia, miseratio, commiseratio, compassio) and the object of opposing judgments. Condemned as a pathology by Stoic thought, compassion becomes the fundamental attitude of Christian ethics, codified in the ‘works of mercy’. In the modern age compassion is rethought on the one hand in the light of a new approach to the affective dimension, regarded as natural and necessary (as attested by Vives’ reflections), and on the other hand in the context of the recovery of Stoic thought, which takes place under the banner of its conciliation with Christianity (Lipsius). Through the contributions of this rich tradition, but with the renewed aim of scientifically describing passions and considering their usefulness for life, Descartes en physicien and Spinoza more geometrico reflect both on compassion, studying its psychological dynamics, its ethical scope and its functionality for social living.