Descartes’ Meditations—A Critical GuideKaren Detlefsen, Editor Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013; xii + 264 pp. $88.99 (hardback)

Abstract

Book Reviews/Comptes rendus 803 turn than others, they disagree about whether preventive uses can be reconciled with retributive constraints on punishment, and they disagree about how far states should be permitted to go in addressing the insecurity they themselves have, if not manufactured, at least exaggerated for political gain. Most of the authors offer not just critical refl ections on their subject matter-and acute analyses of the, sometimes subtle, changes to our understanding of criminal law and its role in a just society that are wrought by defi ning crimes in increasingly inchoate modes. They also offer positive prescriptions and recommendations which, if followed, would supply principled limits on the ever-expanding reach of the criminal law into more and more innocent conduct, and would restrain the worst abuses of state power that are purportedly justifi ed by the need to provide security in an insecure world. Yet, in the end, this is not an optimistic book. It is, instead, a cautionary tale about precautionary reasoning in the realm of criminal law. Sullivan and Dennis have produced a very good book. Seeking Security is a collection of essays greater than the sum of its parts (which all anthologies aspire to be, but so few actually are). It will reward careful reading by anyone interested in contemporary criminal law theory or moral, social and political philosophy, as well as providing rich fodder for anyone interested in understanding how even liberal democracies can lose their way in times of insecurity. I highly recommend it.