Squaring the Circle by Douglas M Jesseph
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. This book presents an account of the 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 17th-century debates over the limits of sovereign power and the existence of God.-
Theory and Reality
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Sex and Death
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A Social History of Truth
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Galileo, Courtier
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In the Wake of Chaos
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Science and Relativism
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The Romantic Conception of Life
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Science as a Process
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The Shaky Game
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Discovery and Explanation in Biology and Medicine
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Explaining Science
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Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology
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Descartes' Metaphysical Physics
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Men among the Mammoths
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What Emotions Really Are
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The State of Nature
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Styles of Scientific Thought
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Life's Splendid Drama
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Economics--Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns?
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Berkeley's Philosophy of Mathematics
Jesseph, Douglas M.: - Douglas M. Jesseph is assistant professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780226398990 |
| ISBN 10 | 0226398994 |
| Title | Squaring the Circle |
| Author | Douglas M Jesseph |
| Series | Science And Its Conceptual Foundations Series |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | The University of Chicago Press |
| Year published | 2000-01-01 |
| Number of pages | 433 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |