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BOOK REVIEWS 343 description of accidents rather than a search for causes. Students of Galileo have supplied enough accurate descriptions of his work. It is now time to concentrate on dynamics. J. L. HEXLSRON University of California, Berkeley Descartes' Frage nach der Existenz der Welt: Untersuchungen iiber die Cartesianische Denkpraxis und Metaphysik. By Wilhelm Halbfasz. Monographien zur Philosophischen Forschung bcgrtindet yon Georgi Schischkoff, Band 51. (Meisenheim am Glan: Anton Hain, 1968. Pp. [x]+258. Paper, DM 33.50) During the past decade, and especially in the last four or five years, there has been a significant re-birth of interest in the thought of Ren~ Descartes. This is particularly true among scholars who write in English. The new enthusiasm has embraced critical editions and translations, but it has been most notable among the secondary studies, be they reprints, new monographs and full-length studies, or articles and anthologies. For example, Oxford University Press has re-issued Norman Kemp Smith's pioneer Studies in the Cartesian Philosophy (1962; originally 1902), as well as his New Studies in the Philosophy of Descartes (1963; originally 1953). This past year the same publisher brought out a new, revised edition of S. V. Keeling's Descartes, which originally appeared 1934 and has long been out of print. New scholarship is well represented by Leslie J. Beck, who earlier gave us a study of the Rules for the Direction of the Mind in his The Method of Descartes (Oxford, 1952), and by Anthony Kenny. Beck's new contribution, The Metaphysics of Descartes (Oxford, 1966), is a close textual analysis of the Meditations in the manner of a sober historian of philosophy. Kenny's Descartes: A Study of His Philosophy (Random House, 1968) focuses on the central issues of the Meditations, paying particular attention to recent interpretation and argumentation among English-speaking philosophers. Two paperback volumes collect some important papers and journal articles: Alexander Sesonske and Noel Fleming, Meta-meditations: Studies in Descartes (Wadsworth, 1966), and Willis Doney, Descartes: A Collection of Critical Essays (Doubleday, 1967). In addition, Richard A. Watson traced the impact of Descartes' thought in The Downfall of Cartesianism 1673-1712 (Nijhoff, 1966) and Gregor Sebba made available an indispensable reference tool, Bibliographia Cartesians: A Critical Guide to the Descartes Literature I800-I960 (Nijhoff, 1964). The English-speaking reader, faced with a flood of literature in his own language whose crest is barely indicated in the preceding list, must wonder how to react when he comes upon a new book on Descartes in a foreign language. French scholarship on Descartes, both past and present, is of course voluminous and impressive. Though less well known, the attention of German writers has also been of long duration and distinguished quality, including as it does the work of Hegel and Scheliing, Jaspers and Heidegger, Kuno Fischer and Ernst Cassirer. Still, most human beings must husband their resources. Only the most energetic and avid specialists can hope to read with profit even the larger part of the available material on Descartes. The question, then, is how (or whether) to commend Wilhelm Halbfasz' new monograph to the general student of the history of philosophy. I believe the solution is to regard Halbfasz' work with mixed feelings and to seek to express the countervailing values as clearly as possible. 344 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Halbfasz tells us in the preface to Descartes' Frage nach der Existenz der Welt that he had originally intended to write a monograph on the history of the theme of solipsism. In preparing for this task he was inevitably drawn to Descartes as an example of an eminent philosopher whose work relates to this theme. After consideration of even the most well-known Cartesian texts, however, Halbfasz concluded "dass das Bekannte und Vertraute nicht eo ipso auch gekl~trt ist" ("Vorwort," v). That is, the very fluency of the texts, which would seem to lead to foregone conclusions, may instead impede closer analysis and recognition of difficulties. Halbfasz decided that a determined reexamination of Descartes was required, one which would pay close attention to the problems which still remain in his thought. This is the goal of Descartes' Frage nach der Existenz der Welt, which is basically...

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