ABSTRACT
Pietro Verri’s research into the origins of the feelings of pleasure and pain situated itself within a field of enquiry dominated by two approaches: the empiricism of John Locke and David Hume and the sensationism of Etienne de Condillac, Claude Helvetius, and the writers of the Encyclopedie. At the beginning of the Discorso, Verri presents direct self-observation as a reliable strategy to illustrate the mechanisms of sensibility. He frames his essay with a binary conception of the affections of the soul: pain and pleasure are the two pillars on which to found an analysis of human sensibility. Unlike the French philosopher, however, he thinks that neither pleasure nor pain can be subjected to strict mathematical calculations. The soldiers’ abundant tears, in Verri’s interpretation, demonstrate the validity of his theory of negative hedonism, or the idea that pleasure is to be understood as a rapid cessation of pain.
