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Squaring the circle
Hardback
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- Book Synopsis
- 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. Squaring the Circle is a detailed account of this 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 seventeenth-century debates over the limits of sovereign power and the existence of God.
- About The Author
- Douglas M. Jesseph is assistant professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University.
- Product Details
-
- ISBN
- 9780226398990
- Format
- Hardback
- Publisher
- The University of Chicago Press, (10 January 2000)
- Number of Pages
- 419
- Weight
- 794 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 229 x 152 x 38 mm
- Series:
- See all books in this series
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