Abstract

Cottingham aims to present Descartes' philosophy in a way that makes "the issues reasonably accessible to students who may be approaching the Cartesian system for the first time". He also aims to do "justice to the complexities of argument involved". There is a potential conflict here: making the issues accessible can lead one to oversimplify them; capturing the complexities of Descartes' thought can cause one to leave inexperienced readers behind. When the conflict arises, Cottingham routinely picks accessibility over philosophical complexity. As a result, his book is not as philosophically sophisticated as other commentaries, such as E. M. Curley's, Margaret Wilson's and Bernard Williams's, but it is a superb introduction to Descartes' philosophy for the uninitiated. Cottingham places Descartes' philosophical ideas within the context of the intellectual climate of his time and shows the interrelations between major elements of Descartes' system, from his epistemology to his view of the physical universe to his physiological and psychological theories. The book's only drawback as an introduction is its limited bibliography. Many who read this book will be inspired to learn more; a more extensive, perhaps topically organized, bibliography would have helped them get started.