The Mathematical Works of Thomas Hobbes

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract Douglas Jesseph, North Carolina State University The Mathematical Works of Thomas Hobbes This project is a renewal of support for the preparation of three volumes of mathematical works of Thomas Hobbes. The works will appear through Oxford University Press as part of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes is a figure of central importance in the development of early modern science, and his prominence as a political theorist has placed him at the center of numerous studies of the social, cultural, and intellectual context of seventeenth-century science. Hobbes's significance for the development of mathematics is also profound, although scholars have tended to overlook his mathematical work. This relative neglect stems, in part, from the mistaken impression that his mathematical writings are nothing more than misguided attempts to solve such unsolvable problems as the squaring of the circle. Although Hobbes was convinced that his first principles would enable the solution of such problems, the majority of his mathematical writings concern methodological and philosophical issues that are independent of his failed circle quadratures, and many other of his writings are part of his long and bitter controversy with John Wallis and other members of the Royal Society. A proper edition of his mathematical works is of interest to STS scholarship generally, and particularly to studies of science and mathematics in the seventeenth century. A major obstacle impeding scholarly attention to Hobbes's mathematics is the fact that the current standard edition of his collected works has a completely inadequate presentation of the mathematical material. The edition is almost useless for scholarly investigation of Hobbes's mathematics. By including complete texts, adequate diagrams, introductions, translations, notes, and a critical apparatus, the mathematical volumes of the Clarendon Works will make accessible a wealth of material relevant to studies of the philosophical, social, and cultural background of seventeenth-century mathematics. The PI has assembled the printed sources in electronically editable form and has compared them line by line with the originals. In addition, all known manuscript sources (including those the PI has recently discovered) have been transcribed or photocopied, and they are being rendered in electronically editable form. Approximately one third of the material in Latin has been translated, with to be completed in the summer of 2001. This support permits final redaction of all three volumes, (including notation of variants, writing introductions, and preparation of explanatory notes). They are to be ready for copy editing by the Press in September of 2002.