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Hobbes: Geometrical Objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

William Sacksteder
William Sacksteder*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Colorado at Boulder
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Abstract

Hobbes' philosophy of geometry was eccentric to contemporary movements and worsted in specific controversy. But he laid down stipulations defining geometry and its method which might provide a significant and workable alternative “meta-geometry”. Some of these are isolated and reinterpreted here, especially those concerned with describing magnitudes, motions and quantities, and with his use of proportions. Rather than refutation of commentaries and historical rehash, the effort here is to isolate definitive texts and to offer a reinterpretation of their arguments in succinct form showing their coherence and their interdependence with his other philosophic principles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 573 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

REFERENCES

Molesworth, Sir William (ed.) (1839), The English Works of Thomas Hobbes. London.Google Scholar
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Sacksteder, William (1978), “Hobbes: Teaching Philosophy to Speak English”, Journal of the History of Philosophy 16, pp. 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacksteder, William (1980), “Hobbes: The Art of the Geometricians” Journal of the History of Philosophy 18, pp. 131–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, Craig (1974), “The Philosophia Prima of Thomas Hobbes”, in Thomas Hobbes in his Time. Ross, Ralph et. al. (eds.) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar