Had the clash between Cartesian transcendence and Spinozian immanence taken a different turn, the world would most plausibly be a very different type of place and international law a fundamentally dissimilar argumentative practice. This short essay offers some thoughts on what international law would look like today had international lawyers not espoused their usual Cartesian crude empiricism. On that occasion, it reflects on a possible ‘turn to emotions’ in international law.