Abstract

Passions of Cross and Passions of Sword: Nicolas Malebranche and Niccolò Gaetani. The fundamental value attributed to the passions is examined in a comparison between Nicolas Malebranche and an exponent of Neapolitan culture of the early eighteenth century, Niccolò Gaetani dell’Aquila d’Aragona. On the one hand a philosophical vision emerges, at the very limits of orthodoxy; on the other hand it is stressed the use of the passions as a balancing tool for civil order.