Abstract
It is difficult to deal with the role of passions in ethical and political matters without dealing with its contrary, the role of reason, insofar as passion seems par excellence a factor of a disordered state of rational conduct. On the other hand, when rational conduct makes it possible to define an agent's fundamental preference, avoid contradictions and determine the most adequate means of achieving an end, the control of irrational factors of an agent's emotional life must play a part. In this essay, this task is accomplished using the frame of reference employed by rational choice theorists to state clearly the distinctive prospects of rational conduct. It is concluded that Hobbes and Spinoza manifest wholly or in part this group of properties supported by the respective principle of their moral and political philosophy based on the indissoluble connection between goodness, usefulness and reason.
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