Descartes; A Study of His Philosophy

This is an excellent study of Descartes' philosophy. It is more in depth than an introductory work, but not as ambitious as Bernard William's The Project of Pure Inquiry. It is not, however, an advanced critical approach to Descartes' philosophy, but nonetheless fits the bill of being sufficiently philosophically interesting and substantial. Kenny's treatment is just another book covering all the usual Cartesian suspects: e.g., res extensia, res cogitans, innate ideas (e.g. God, Substance), mind and body, reason and intuition. But Kenny does it so much better than most others, and his precise and clear presentation makes it easy reading, and appropriate for advanced undergrads and beginning grad students. The book also includes a section on an aspect of Cartesian thought that is usually passed over in a work like this one. It includes a nice (but brief) section on Descartes' view of matter and motion, and Kenny's explication in this section is a classic formulation and critique.

What a pity this book is out of print. Kenny's book on Descartes does not take the reader as far into the deeps of philosophy as Bernard Williams, and the book is not up to date. But Kenny is an intelligent philosopher and, furthermore, he is one of the best writers of philosophical prose. Undergraduates, who have just read some of Descartes' own work can read Kenny, understand the issues that he raises and, very often, they will come away with some idea of where they disagree with Kenny. This is an excellent book for teaching students, by example, how to respond intelligently to the thoughts of a great philosopher.