John Cottingham

Education

The focus of his research has been early-modern philosophy (René was the subject of his Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford), the philosophy of religion and moral philosophy.

Career

Cottingham has served as a president of the Aristotelian Society, the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, the Mind Association 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. In his work on, Cottingham introduced trialism as an alternative interpretation of the mind-body dualism of 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 ’s view of animals as ‘machines’ does not have the reductionistic implications commonly supposed.

Finally, Cottingham has explored the importance of 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

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.

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.

Works

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  • Western Philosophy: An Anthology (Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies) Hardcover 2007 2 Ed. John G. Cottingham

    (Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)

  • Western Philosophy: An Anthology (Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies) by John G. Cottingham (2007-11-02)

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He is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Reading, Professorial Research Fellow, Heythrop College, University of London, Honorary Fellow of Street John's College, Oxford and editor of Ratio: the International Journal of Analytic Philosophy. His work on partiality defends the importance of self-concern as a central ingredient in virtue.