In Conversation with John Cottingham

My conversation with Professor Cottingham – one of the foremost living authorities on Descartes – aimed to illuminate often-overlooked aspects of Descartes’ system and to explore unconventional interpretative perspectives. As a result, themes such as Descartes’ metaethics, philosophy of emotions, and the ontology and teleology of human beings and animals take center stage. Naturally, discussing a Janusian figure like Descartes necessitates examining influences that penetrate deep into the past, present, and future, Our conversation, therefore, extends to his Ancient and Medieval predecessors, his contemporaries, and his successors. The depth of his influence also invites Professor Cottingham’s reflections on contemporary themes, including issues of (mental) representation, problems of inverted spectrum, qualia problems etc. Ultimately, it might be easier to list the topics we didn’t discuss than those we covered. Serbian – and all other – readers are fortunate to have such an intellectual delight before them.