Review by Choice Review
An excellent introduction to Descartes for first-year philosophy students by the translator of Descartes' Conversation with Burman (London, 1976), author of Rationalism (London, 1984), and coeditor and cotranslator (with R. Stoothoff and D. Murdoch) of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (1985). Cottingham (University of Reading) discusses Descartes' life, times, and writings; his method, and theories of knowledge of self, God, and the material world; his conception of man in relation to animals and machines; and his views of science and sensory qualities, innate ideas, freedom and reason, the passions, and the good life. He also presents an appendix in which he details the long passage from Baillet's biography of 1691 on Descartes' dreams. This is a careful, lucid, and readable book that can be recommended highly for all undergraduate collections. It is a useful companion to Anthony Kenny, Descartes: a Study of His Philosophy (1968), Leon Pearl, Descartes (CH, Feb '78), and Bernard Williams, Descartes: The Project of Pure Inquiry (1978). This attractive book is recommended for all reader levels.-M. Andic, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
