Abstract
When Richard Kennington arrived at Cornell University in the fall of 1967 as guest professor in the Government Department and began to lecture on political philosophy and Descartes’ Discourse on Method, the effect on his colleagues and students was one of delight and shock. Here was a relatively unknown scholar of remarkable depth and learning, investigating questions of the first importance with a thorough and unforced mastery of the history of philosophy. His lectures put one directly in the presence of the thought of the great philosophers, removing one from the ever-louder noise of modern life.
