The general idea of passion has a positive connotation in our society, being perceived as something that motivates us and helps us focus on a certain subject. However, Helvétius found the darker side of passion, which is quite unexpected due to passion’s association with positive essence. As a philosopher in the 18th century, Claude-Adrien Helvétius focused on the human’s mind and how we should behave as an individual who has full capability to resist temptations, thus living a “better life”. In this short essay Grand Illusions, Helvétius presents his idea of why passion blinds people and how it makes people short-term thinkers rather than thoughtful thinkers. Since his idea of passion is so different from what the society have been perceiving, it could have been much easier for him to use impactful words and try to force his idea through the readers’ minds with strong essay, but Helvétius rather chose to present his topic in a personal, easy-to-approach, but intelligible, persuasive, and coherent way which …show more content…
Since people are naturally used to this nature of fear already, this explains and clarifies Helvétius’ unfamiliar and unique idea of passion to the audience in a more approachable and understandable way. Additionally, it partially but surely explains the thought process of Helvétius and how he came to this conclusion in a non-forceful way, which also supports and encourages readers to understand his point of view in a natural way. Due to this aspect of the essay, it enables readers to explore his idea in a less reluctant manner, encouraging them to engage in thinking about Helvétius’ idea of