JOHN COTTINGHAM is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading, and an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford University. He is the author of numerous books including Descartes, The Rationalists, On the Meaning of Life, and In Search of the Soul. He is co-translator of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, and has published numerous articles on the history of philosophy, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of religion. Professor Cottingham is former Chairman of the British Society for the History of Philosophy and President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, and was for many years editor of Ratio, the international journal of analytic philosophy.