Emotion in Leibniz's Philosophy

One of the most important aspects of our mental life, in terms of the quality and meaning of our existence, is emotions; Because emotions can guide our perceptions, thoughts, and actions in a certain direction. To explain this category, the differentiation of passions, rational tendencies, instincts, and the role of each in human actions should be investigated. Leibniz in his philosophy of mind highlights these different inclinations of the mind well and by focusing on dynamic forces, transforms the understanding of the human mind specially. He tries to explain how these types of emotions affect the body and mind based on the approach of psychophysical parallelism and the experience of states such as pleasure and pain based on his metaphysical background. Although Leibniz never wrote a separate treatise on passions like Descartes, he deeply cared about the appetent dimension of the human mind, and his ideas in this regard can be found in the work new essays on human understanding. In this article, an attempt is made to explain his approach to emotions and, more specifically, human passions by focusing on new essays on human understanding.