John Cottingham
British philosopher
About
Why is this person notable and influential?John Cottingham is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Reading University, Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, London, and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. He studied at Merchant Taylor’s School and St. John’s College, Oxford.
He is co-editor and translator of the three-volume Cambridge edition of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. He was formerly an editor of Ratio, the international journal of analytic philosophy, president of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, Chairman of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, and president of the Aristotelian Society.
He is perhaps best known for his introduction of trialism, which expanded upon the interpretation of Descartes’ mind-body dualism. In his new interpretation, Cottingham asserts that humans have additional dimensions to their experience (emotions, passions) that cannot be accounted for with a focus solely on mind and body. His research interests include philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and seventeenth-century philosophy, especially that of Descartes and the Rationalists.
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Major published works by John Cottingham: