John Cottingham

John Cottingham matriculated as a Sir Thomas White Scholar in 1962, and went on to gain double first class honours in Mods and Greats, and to complete his DPhil in Philosophy in 1973. He is an authority on the philosophy of Descartes and seventeenth-century rationalism, and has written numerous books and articles on the history of philosophy, with special reference to the early-modern period. He has also published extensively in the field of moral philosophy and philosophy of religion, with special reference to the theory of the good life and the relation between philosophy and spirituality. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading, where he was for many years Head of Department and Chair of Graduate Studies. He has served as Chairman of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, President of the Mind Association, President of the Aristotelian Society, and President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion. From 1993-2012 he was Editor of Ratio, the international journal of analytic philosophy.

Cottingham is co-translator of the standard three-volume Cambridge edition of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (1985-91). His other books include Descartes (1986), The Rationalists (1988), Reason, Will and Sensation (1994), Western Philosophy: an anthology (3rd edn 2021), Philosophy and the Good Life: Reason and the Passions in Greek, Cartesian and Psychoanalytic Ethics (1998), On the Meaning of Life (2003), The Spiritual Dimension (2005), Cartesian Reflections (2008), Why Believe? (2009), Philosophy of Religion: Towards a More Humane Approach (2014), How to Believe (2015), and In Search of the Soul (2020). The Moral Life, a collection of essays honouring his work on moral philosophy and philosophy of religion, appeared in 2008. His latest book, The Humane Perspective: Philosophical Reflections on Human Nature, the Search for Meaning, and the Role of Religion is to be published by Oxford University Press in 2024.