Squaring the Circle: The War Between Hobbes and WallisIn 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. |
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algebra analysis analytic analytic geometry Andrew Crooke angle of contact arch BF Archimedes argued argument arithmetic atheist authority body cause Cavalieri chapter church circle quadrature claims classical Clavius conception consequently construction controversy Corpore cube curve declares deficient figure definition demonstration Descartes dispute doctrine duplication Elenchus equal error Euclid Euclidean Examinatio false Galileo geometry hath Hobbes and Wallis Hobbes's mathematical Hobbesian Huygens infinite Leviathan magnitudes mathe mathematicians matics matter method of indivisibles motion Mylon names natural philosophy nature objects parabola parallelogram philosophy of mathematics plane political principles problem Proclus proportion proposition quadrature quantity quotients radius reason rectilinear angle refutation religion result right line Roberval Royal Society Savilian scientific seventeenth-century Six Lessons Sorbière sovereign spiral square the circle straight line synthesis tangent theorem theory of ratios things Thomas Hobbes tion treatise triangle truth universal Wallis's Ward