Major Works

• The Elements of Philosophy: De Corpore

    The Elements of Philosophy is composed of three parts, not published in their intended order. De Corpore, which was published in 1655, contains four parts. Part I concerns logic, Part II concerns scientific concepts, Part III concerns geometry and… More

Commentary

• Hobbes’s Doctrine of Method

  - J. Weinberger, "Hobbes's Doctrine of Method," American Political Science Review, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Dec. 1975).
  Excerpt: The rise of modern political science is usually associated with the rise of modern natural science and scientific method. It is often noted that Hobbes was the first modern thinker to apply the new science of nature to the study of politics and,… More

• “Hobbes’s Scheme of the Sciences”

  - Tom Sorell, in The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (Tom Sorell, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 45-61
  Tom Sorell considers Hobbes’ views on the proper organization of the sciences and how that organization bears on Hobbes’ own “system.”

• “Hobbes and the Method of Natural Science”

  - Douglas Jesseph, in The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (Tom Sorell, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 86-107
  A comparison of Hobbes’ methodology with that of Scholastic natural philosophy, which is followed by a consideration of the distinction between analytic and synthetic methods and Hobbes’ claim that scientific reasoning depends on the manipulation… More

• Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life

  - Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer (Princeton University Press, 2011)
  Leviathan and the Air-Pump examines the conflicts over the value and propriety of experimental methods between two major seventeenth-century thinkers: Thomas Hobbes, author of the political treatise Leviathan and vehement critic of systematic experimentation… More