Hobbes and Galileo: Method, Matter and the Science of Motion

von Gregorio Baldin

216 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

This book, translated from Italian, discusses the influence of Galileo on Hobbes’ natural philosophy. In his
De motu, loco et tempore
 or
Anti-White 
(~ 1643), Thomas Hobbes describes Galileo as “the greatest philosopher of all times”, and in
De Corpore
(1655), the Italian scientist is presented as the one who “opened the door of all physics, that is, the nature of motion.”  The book gives a detailed analysis of Galileo’s legacy in Hobbes’s philosophy, exploring four main issues: a comparison between Hobbes’ and Mersenne’s natural philosophies, the Galilean Principles of Hobbes’ philosophical system, a comparison between Galileo’s
momentum
and Hobbes’s
conatus
, and Hobbes’ and Galileo’s theories of matter. The book also analyses the role played by Marin Mersenne, in spreading Galileo’s ideas in France, and as a discussant of Hobbes. It highlights the many aspects of Hobbes’ relationship with Galileo: the methodological and epistemological elements, but also the conceptual and the lexical analogies in the field of physics, to arrive, finally, at a close comparison on the subject of the matter. From this analysis emerges a shared mechanical conception of the universe open and infinite, that replaces the Aristotelian cosmos, and which is populated by two elements only: matter and motion.

• Reihe: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées
• ISBN: 9783030414160
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 16.04.2021
• Genre: Naturwissenschaften allgemein
• Verlag: Springer International Publishing