Descartes: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book to get to know Descartes
Review: It is a really easy-to-read book. People who just start to be interested in Philosophy will not find this book intimadating or overwhelming. The author also points out and explains the "errors" of Descartes's thinking. An excellent book to be added to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Useful for novices and advanced students alike.
Review: Those who have not yet studied Descartes will enjoy this clearly written introduction to Descartes' life and thought. However, even seasoned philosophy students are also liable to find much of interest in Sorell's DESCARTES. For most philosophy students, Descartes is more or less synonymous with the DISCOURSE ON METHOD and the MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY, and Descartes' scientific and mathematical work tend to be regarded as almost irrelevant and disconnected afterthoughts. The brilliance of Sorell's book is to show how Descartes' work constitutes an integrated whole, where the DISCOURSE and the MEDITATIONS are more a preliminary step in Descartes' project than the endpoint of his philosophy that we often take it to be.