Squaring the circle : the war between Hobbes and Wallis
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Squaring the circle : the war between Hobbes and Wallis
(Science and its conceptual foundations)
University of Chicago Press, 1999
- : cloth
- : paper
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-409) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: cloth ISBN 9780226398990
Description
In 1655, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes claimed he had solved the centuries-old problem of "squaring of the circle" (constructing a square equal in area to a given circle). With a scathing rebuttal to Hobbes's claims, the mathematician John Wallis began one of the longest and most intense intellectual disputes of all time. This book presents an account of the controversy, from the core mathematics to the broader philosophical, political and religious issues at stake. Hobbes believed that by recasting geometry in a materialist mold, he could solve any geometric problem and thereby demonstrate the power of his materialist metaphysics. Wallis, a prominent Presbyterian divine as well as an eminent mathematician, refuted Hobbes's geometry as a means of discrediting his philosophy, which Wallis saw as a dangerous mix of atheism and pernicious political theory. Hobbes and Wallis's "battle of the books" illuminates the intimate relationship between science and crucial 17th-century debates over the limits of sovereign power and the existence of God.
Table of Contents
Preface List of Abbreviations Chapter One: The Mathematical Career of the Monster of Malmesbury Chapter Two: The Reform of Mathematics and of the Universities Ideological Origins of the Dispute Chapter Three: De Corpore and the Mathematics of Materialism Chapter Four: Disputed Foundations Hobbes vs. Wallis on the Philosophy of Mathematics Chapter Five: The "Modern Analytics" and the Nature of Demonstration Chapter Six: The Demise of Hobbesian Geometry Chapter Seven: The Religion, Rhetoric, and Politics of Mr. Hobbes and Dr. Wallis Chapter Eight: Persistence in Error Why Was Hobbes So Resolutely Wrong? Appendix: Selections from Hobbes's Mathematical Writings References Index
- Volume
-
: paper ISBN 9780226399003
Description
In 1655, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes claimed he had solved the centuries-old problem of "squaring of the circle" (constructing a square equal in area to a given circle). With a scathing rebuttal to Hobbes's claims, the mathematician John Wallis began one of the longest and most intense intellectual disputes of all time. This book presents an account of the controversy, from the core mathematics to the broader philosophical, political and religious issues at stake. Hobbes believed that by recasting geometry in a materialist mold, he could solve any geometric problem and thereby demonstrate the power of his materialist metaphysics. Wallis, a prominent Presbyterian divine as well as an eminent mathematician, refuted Hobbes's geometry as a means of discrediting his philosophy, which Wallis saw as a dangerous mix of atheism and pernicious political theory. Hobbes and Wallis's "battle of the books" illuminates the intimate relationship between science and crucial 17th-century debates over the limits of sovereign power and the existence of God.
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