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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent source for Descartes otherwise unknown motives
Review: Descartes correspondence is key to understanding his texts. This source book brings to light otherwise untranslated letters from Descartes to his most trusted friends describing his fears and desires for his work. Kenny, as usual, does an excellent job!
Rating:
Summary: For Serious Students of Descartes
Review: So far as I know, this is currently the best volume available in English for those looking to seriously study Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy. This work is the second volume of the three-volume Cottingham, Stoothoff, Murdoch edition of the philosophical works of Descartes, an edition that seems destined to be the standard in the English-speaking world for years to come. For that reason alone this volume would be an important translation of the Meditations to pick up for the serious student of Descartes. But there are additional reasons to prefer this edition of the Meditations. One is that this is a good translation of the text. John Cottingham, the translator, has succeeded in render Descartes's work into readable, and fairly graceful, modern English. Furthermore, as this text was translated with its inclusion in the three-volume set in mind, the translators' choices with respect to usage and phrasing are standard in their renderings of all the key philosophical works. And Cottingham has wisely chosen to clearly separate the original Latin text of Descartes's Meditations from the changes made in the French translation of the Meditations of which he approved. So the reader can be sure that he or she is getting Descartes's work as interpreted by at most one translator. But the most important reason to prefer this edition of the Meditations to its competitors is that it includes the entirety of the objections and replies, which are also translated by Cottingham. Thus, in addition to the complete text of Descartes's work, you get more than three hundred pages of criticism of his work by his contemporaries and his replies to that criticism. There are seven sets of objections, each written by a different philosopher or by a group of related philosophers and each with a different reply by Descartes. Two of the sets of objections are from philosophers, namely Thomas Hobbes and Antoine Arnauld, who have achieved some renown apart from their work in this volume. (And it is pretty interesting to see Hobbes's radical materialism and empiricism pitted against Descartes's dualism and rationalism, even if their exchange isn't especially helpful in understanding Descartes's views.) While a couple of the sets of objections and replies are unnecessarily long, most of them are around twenty or thirty pages. Some of the criticism here is quite sharp, and it forces Descartes to at least clarify his views and his arguments for them. Arnauld, for instance, first raises the possible problem of the Cartesian Circle in his set of objections. I recommend this volume to those looking to seriously study Descartes's Meditations, and I do so without reservation.
Rating:
Summary: For Serious Students of Descartes
Review: So far as I know, this is currently the best volume available in English for those looking to seriously study Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy. This work is the second volume of the three-volume Cottingham, Stoothoff, Murdoch edition of the philosophical works of Descartes, an edition that seems destined to be the standard in the English-speaking world for years to come. For that reason alone this volume would be an important translation of the Meditations to pick up for the serious student of Descartes. But there are additional reasons to prefer this edition of the Meditations. One is that this is a good translation of the text. John Cottingham, the translator, has succeeded in render Descartes's work into readable, and fairly graceful, modern English. Furthermore, as this text was translated with its inclusion in the three-volume set in mind, the translators' choices with respect to usage and phrasing are standard in their renderings of all the key philosophical works. And Cottingham has wisely chosen to clearly separate the original Latin text of Descartes's Meditations from the changes made in the French translation of the Meditations of which he approved. So the reader can be sure that he or she is getting Descartes's work as interpreted by at most one translator. But the most important reason to prefer this edition of the Meditations to its competitors is that it includes the entirety of the objections and replies, which are also translated by Cottingham. Thus, in addition to the complete text of Descartes's work, you get more than three hundred pages of criticism of his work by his contemporaries and his replies to that criticism. There are seven sets of objections, each written by a different philosopher or by a group of related philosophers and each with a different reply by Descartes. Two of the sets of objections are from philosophers, namely Thomas Hobbes and Antoine Arnauld, who have achieved some renown apart from their work in this volume. (And it is pretty interesting to see Hobbes's radical materialism and empiricism pitted against Descartes's dualism and rationalism, even if their exchange isn't especially helpful in understanding Descartes's views.) While a couple of the sets of objections and replies are unnecessarily long, most of them are around twenty or thirty pages. Some of the criticism here is quite sharp, and it forces Descartes to at least clarify his views and his arguments for them. Arnauld, for instance, first raises the possible problem of the Cartesian Circle in his set of objections. I recommend this volume to those looking to seriously study Descartes's Meditations, and I do so without reservation.
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