The Vehement Passions
Manifesting broad intellectual originality and liberality, Philip Fisher ponders on whether victory is permanent and how it might deprecate us. From Aristotle to Hume to contemporary biology, Fisher finds evidence that the passions have defined a core of human nature no less important than reason or desire.
"Philip Fisher has written a revisionary history of startling boldness, rereading the authorities in novel and penetrating ways. His conclusions have relevance to the inner lives of us all."
— J. M. Coetzee, author of The Lives of Animals
"This is really a quite extraordinary work, an attempt to reclaim for modern use a vocabulary we gave up two centuries (or more) ago, and more importantly, to reclaim or re-recognize the intense energies that go with that vocabulary--still present and alive. Fisher's whole project is enormously compelling. Its scope and force are unmistakable, and will provoke important discussions."
— Michael Wood, Princeton University