Journal of the History of Philosophy

BOOK REVIEWS 159 "real things," whereas extension wavers uncertainly between objecthood and Kantian phenomenalism (62-63). The "definitive answer to the question of the relation of fiction to certainty" is also given by Marion (79). It is that science is a code, translating perception into the abstract language of mathematics. "But codes are artefacts; in this sense at least, science is a thing made, a fiction" (78). In a word, science is poetry-disenchanting poetry. The second part of the book is a philosophical therapeutic. The review of Descartes' controversies with the Scholastics and with Gassendi is meant to make us, for whom Cartesianism has become self-evident, appreciate how very questionable the project was to those who first saw it. The Epilogue continues the criticism of Descartes through an extended meditation on the piece of wax. This leads to a phenomenology of the life-world and interested personal knowledge as the alternative to Cartesianism. HIRAM CATON Griffith University, Brisbane The Collected Works of Spinoza. Volume 1. Edited and Translated by Edwin Curley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. Pp. xx + 727. $45.oo This excellent new translation of Spinoza's works has many advantages over the previously existing English translations. It was a long time before we had an adequate translation of Spinoza's main work, the Ethics, in English; as recently as 198~ a good translation, by Samuel Shirley (Hackett Publishing Co.) appeared. The Short Treatise and the Correspondence were well translated by A. Wolf (they appeared in 191o and 19~8, with reprints in 1963 and a966, respectively). By using the last twenty years of scholarly Spinoza studies, Curley's translation surpasses all of the others in accuracy and reliability. Curley presents Spinoza's works in a chronological order. Thus he does not present Spinoza's letters in a separate part, but disperses them between Spinoza's works in accordance with their dates. The present volume is the first of an intended set of two volumes. It contains the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, the Short Treatise on God, Man, and His WellBeing , the work on Descartes, and the Ethics. In addition, the letters written between August 1661 and September 1665 have been included. As the reader may see, Curley follows Mignini's suggestion that the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect precedes the Short Treatise, although he hesitates to follow Mignini's other suggestion, viz., that the two treatises do not belong together, which would at least contradict a first reading of the well-known passage in Spinoza's sixth letter. Very useful in Curley's work is the extended glossary-index in Latin, English, and Dutch, in which all of the relevant terms are given along with their synonyms in the other languages. Curley also provides introductions and commentaries to the texts. In these he also defends the relevance of Spinoza's philosophy for today's thinking (4o4). He admits 16o JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 26:1 JANUARY 1988 that Spinoza's terminology is dated, but thinks that one can expect that in a work written several centuries ago. On the whole, however, Curley restricts himself to giving only textual explanations; he does not give a critical evaluation of Spinoza's thought. This he has already done elsewhere. I have made quite a few tests in order to check Curley's translation and I have found him very accurate and reliable. He also accounts for all of the readings that might be questioned; in these accounts he discusses alternative readings found in works by English, French, German, and Dutch scholars. The principle, however, determining where he has given a commentary and where he has not has remained obscure to me. In most cases Curley offers only remarks which support his translation or his reading of the text, but sometimes he also gives remarks to elucidate the text for a modern reader (e.g., where Spinoza has a discussion with Boyle on chemical experiments ). He does not, however, do this consistently. Further, I have noted some inaccuracies in Curley's commentary. For example, in discussing the well-known problem of the relationship of the dialogues to the rest of the text in...