Squaring the Circle - The War between Hobbes and Wallis (Hardcover, New)

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.

General

Imprint:	University of Chicago Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Science & its Conceptual Foundations Series SCF
Release date:	2000
First published:	2000
Authors:	Douglas M. Jesseph
Dimensions:	235 x 166 x 3mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	433
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-226-39899-0
Categories:	Books > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Philosophy of mathematics Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Philosophy of science Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > History of science
LSN:	0-226-39899-4
Barcode:	9780226398990

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