Journal of the History of Philosophy

342 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY "Flying is-not, relative to Theaetetus," one would produce what could easily be mistaken for a non-eUiptical, non-relational assertion that Fying participates in a contrary to Being (i.e., that Flying does not exist)--"Flying is-not." This is why the Stranger makes sure to insist that when "Theaetetus flies," is false, Flying is, even though it/snot , relative to the subject of which it is said. He is insisting that when he says "Flying is-not," he is making an elliptical assertion of Flying's difference from a certain Part of (relative) Being; "Flying is-not," is not, despite appearances, a non-elliptical statement of Flying's participation in a contrary to (non-relative) Being.1~ STEPHENFERG CorneU University IN DEFIANCE OF DEMONS, DREAMERS, AND MADMEN The revival of interest in Descartes among philosophers who write in English has been largely manifested in the work of analysts who are not primarily historians of philosophy. Jaakko Hintikka and Noam Chomsky, for example, write as much to advance Cartesianism as to explicate Descartes or to delineate the history of Cartesianism. And of Harry Frankfort's Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen,* one is led to ask whether it is a work in the history of philosophy at all. The broad question, Just what is the history of philosophy? looms over the horizon of every page of his book. In this note I can do justice neither to the detail of Frankfurt's arguments, nor to the larger question about the history of philosophy that the book raises. However, there is no question in my mind about the fact that Western philosophy has always essentially involved analysis, and that the best histories of philosophy are themselves works in philosophy. Frankfurt's analytical exposition of Descartes' Meditations is such philosophy. If I stress a major disagreement I have with Frankfurt's interpretation, this is a reflection of the nature of book reviewing, and does not give a balanced picture of my general approval of his method and agreement with many of his conclusions. Frankfurt has read Descartes' First Meditation more carefully than anyone since Arnauld and Descartes himself, and he requires his readers to read the First Meditation more carefully than most probably believe is either possible or necessary. Thus one cannot avoid the question of whether or not Frankfurt forces us to read the First Meditation more carefully than it can stand. Does Frankfurt get out of the First Meditation not only more than Descartes put into it, but also more than Descartes would take out of it? From an analytical point of view, of course, it does not matter what Descartes thought or would think. With O. K. Bouwsma, one might simply delight in having a delectable line to work on. But does this approach really absolve Descartes, for example, 14 I must here pass by the most interesting theme in the Sophist, the philosophical horror inspired by the notion of a contrary to Being. It was, of course, just the desire to avoid this horror which motivated the Stranger to deny that "what-is-not" designates a contrary to Being, and so forced him in the first place into an investigation of "what-is-not" and falsity. * Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen: The Defense of Reason in Descartes's Meditations (Ind_ianapolis;New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970). NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS 343 of responsibility for the results? John Locke once complained that he was not responsible for Socinian conclusions drawn from his Essay, but his defense was almost as weak as a claim that the holding of certain axioms does not commit one to the theorems deduceable therefrom. And those historians of philosophy who compain that Hintikka's work on the cogito really has nothing to do with Descartes obviously have failed to realize that their subject matter is alive, not dead. If Frankfurt can tease from Descartes' old corpus a response no one has noticed before, he is surely permitted to do so. His Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen is an important work in and on Cartesianism. I, for one, am grateful that the old dog will not lie still. Frankfurt pursues a traditional Cartesian line in giving an...