John Cottingham is an English philosopher, educated at Merchant Taylors’ School near London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and St John’s College, Oxford. He is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

, Professorial Research Fellow, Heythrop College, University of London, Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford and editor of Ratio: the International Journal of Analytic Philosophy

Ratio (journal)

Ratio is a peer-reviewed academic journal of analytic philosophy, edited by John Cottingham and published by Wiley-Blackwell. Although emphasising work predominantly from analytic philosophy, it does not exclusively publish in one tradition and includes a variety of philosophical topics...

. The focus of his research has been early-modern philosophy (Rene Descartes

René Descartes

René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...

 was the subject of his DPhil at Oxford), the philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...

 and moral philosophy. Cottingham has served as a president of the Aristotelian Society

Aristotelian Society

The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Square which resolved "to constitute a society of about twenty and to include ladies; the society to meet fortnightly, on Mondays at 8 o'clock, at the rooms of the Spelling...

, the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, the Mind Association

Mind Association

The Mind Association is a philosophical society whose purpose is to promote the study of philosophy. The association publishes the journal Mind quarterly....

 and as Chairman of the British Society for the History of Philosophy. A Festschrift with responses by Cottingam, The Moral Life, was published by Palgrave in 2008.

Descartes

In his work on Descartes, Cottingham introduced trialism as an alternative interpretation of the mind-body dualism of Descartes. Although composed of two substances, mind and body, the human being possesses distinctive attributes in its own right (including sensations, passions, emotions), and these form a third category, that cannot be reduced to thought or extension. Cottingham has also argued that Descartes’s view of animals as ‘machines’ does not have the reductionistic implications commonly supposed. Finally, Cottingham has explored the importance of Descartes as a moral philosopher, with a comprehensive picture of the good life that draws both on his scientific work (in physiology and psychology) and also on the theistic outlook that informs all his philosophy. Cottingham is co-editor and translator of the three-volume Cambridge edition of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes.

Moral philosophy and philosophy of religion

In Philosophy and the Good Life and other works Cottingham criticizes the psychological impoverishment of contemporary moral philosophy, and argues that any plausible theory of a good and integrated life for human beings needs to draw on the insights available from a broadly psychoanalytic perspective. His work on partiality defends the importance of self-concern as a central ingredient in virtue. In On the Meaning of Life, he addresses the relationship between moral, aesthetic and religious modes of awareness in constituting a meaningful life. Cottingham’s more recent work in the philosophy of religion argues for the primacy of the moral and spiritual aspects of religious allegiance over theoretical and doctrinal components.

Selected Works

• (2009) Why Believe? Continuum
• (2008) Cartesian Reflections
  Cartesian Reflections
  Cartesian Reflection is a book by John Cottingham. It appeared in 2008. The work consists of several essays that deal with diverse topics, such as Descartes's views of animals, his position on the dualism of mind and body and the relation between his thoughts and those of Spinoza.-Reviews:*])]*]...
  
  , Oxford University Press
• (2007) Western Philosophy, Blackwell
• (2005) The Spiritual Dimension , Cambridge University Press
• (2003) On the Meaning of Life, Routledge
• (1998) Philosophy and the good life: reason and the passions in Greek, Cartesian and psychoanalytic ethics, Cambridge University Press
• (1997) Descartes’s Philosophy of Mind, Orion
• (1988) The Rationalists
  The Rationalists
  The Rationalists is a 1988 book by John Cottingham. It offers an overview of the most important exponents of rationalism, namely Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. Other thinkers, such as Malebranche, are dealt with, too.-External links:...
  
  , Oxford University Press
• (1986) Descartes, Blackwell

External links

• Personal Webpage (Accessed 7th April 2011)