Jaleel Fotovat-Ahmadi dissertation defense

Jaleel Fotovat-Ahmadi will be defending his dissertation. The title and abstract are below. All faculty and grad students are welcome to attend. Title: Embracing or Escaping the Passions? Two Paths to Happiness in Early Modern Thought Abstract: This dissertation examines how the problem of happiness is reformulated in early modern philosophy once ideals of inner self-governance confront the realities of embodiment, affective disturbance, and social constraint. It argues that the early modern discussion of happiness divides along two distinct trajectories in response to a shared question: whether genuine happiness can be secured within the vulnerable conditions of human life or must instead be grounded in goods immune to loss. The study begins with Descartes’ reflections on happiness and their transformation through his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia. While Descartes initially presents happiness as inward contentment grounded in the right use of the will, Elisabeth’s objections concerning illness, grief, and the pressures of practical life reveal the difficulty of sustaining such stability under embodied conditions. In Passions of the Soul, Descartes develops a physiological account of the passions and places the virtue of generosity at the center of ethical life, yet this framework also exposes a persistent fragility: because the passions remain tied to bodily processes, tranquility cannot be fully secured. The dissertation then argues that this fragility has both psychological and political dimensions. Through an engagement with Gabrielle Suchon, it shows that the pursuit of happiness presupposes social conditions—such as education, freedom from domination, and the capacity for self-direction—that are often left implicit in early modern moral psychology. The final chapters trace two responses to this doubled fragility. One trajectory, developed by Bernard Mandeville and Émilie du Châtelet, accepts the vulnerability of embodied life and seeks forms of flourishing adequate to it. Mandeville interprets happiness through the social organization of passions such as pride and emulation, while Du Châtelet develops a reflective account in which happiness arises from the disciplined cultivation of enduring pleasures and projects. A second trajectory seeks a happiness independent of mutable goods. Nicolas Malebranche grounds felicity in attachment to the immutable divine order, while Mullā Sadrā identifies happiness with the soul’s existential perfection through intellectual and spiritual ascent.. By reconstructing these developments, the dissertation argues that the early modern debate on happiness is structured by a fundamental dilemma: whether happiness consists in stability achieved within vulnerability or in a form of fulfillment secured beyond it.