Squaring the Circle: The War between Hobbes and Wallis

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. 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.

433 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[andrew y · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slightly boring read.

But have you ever wondered how someone can be so provably wrong in the face of scientific fact and not back down? Have you ever wanted to better understand the kind of person who truly believes in something that is not correct?

It is a lot harder to read an incredibly dry book on geometry in the 1600s than it is to just scream "you're wrong and I hate you" over and over. I think there is something more constructive in doing the former, or at least your form of it.

Exhaustively researched and technically sublime, this book will tell you everything you never wanted to know on a controversy you maybe heard about once but probably never did. The message hidden between the lines, written 20 years ago, will leave you with something to think about even if you couldn't give 2 shits about quadratures.

PS to be honest it took me until the last three pages before the eureka moment when I managed to draw a line of analogy to today.

[Ericka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost no one knows enough to write this book. Jesseph has really done Hobbes studies and early modern philosophy a huge favor with setting this out as clearly as he has. This is definitely a book for specialists, but possibly for those curious enough about the era to dig in a bit deeper out for folks looking for reasonably accessible ways into early modern mathematics.

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very dry read. I found the latter third of the book much more engaging the beginning, and there is much to think about within its pages.

my favorite quote: "Some ten years before he actually died, Hobbes was a mathematical casualty and his program for geometry did not survive the death of its founder and lone adherent."

[Kersplebedeb · Rating 3 out of 5]

i can't tell if this was a bad book or a great one because i just don't have the mathematical knowledge to understand much of what was discussed. However i find the basic idea very interesting: that even "pure science" mathematical debates are heavily laden with the political ideas of their day.