Desmond Clarke


Desmond M. Clarke was an author and professor of philosophy at University College Cork, in Cork, Ireland. His research interests lay predominantly in the 17th century, on such topics as the history of philosophy and theories of science - with a specific interest in the writings of René Descartes, as well as contemporary church/state relations, human rights, and nationalism. He was co-editor of the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy series, and he has translated and written an introduction for the Penguin edition of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. He retired from his position as Professor of Philosophy in 2006.
Clarke was the founder and a general editor of Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy – 76 volumes have been published with new translations of non-English texts from ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, French, Italian and German. He died on 17 September 2016.

Publications