So, OK, I understand that Wright is pissed at Hillary & Hannity, but what did Hobbes do to him to appear on his shit list?
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Wright vs Hobbes
So, OK, I understand that Wright is pissed at Hillary & Hannity, but what did Hobbes do to him to appear on his shit list?
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4 comments:
He's with Calvin?
Hey, this guy's kinda with Sailer. Dunno if Wright wants Obama to lose to push his funny beliefs or if he's just using the reflected limelight.
Whatever. The great thing about freedom of speech is that the idiots are visible.
Maybe Wright doesn't like the Leviathan. Or, perhaps, Hobbes's math:
After a time Hobbes began a third period of controversial activity, which he dragged out until his ninetieth year. The first piece, published in 1666, De principiis et ratiocinatione geometrarum, was an attack on geometry professors. Three years later he brought his three mathematical achievements together in Quadratura circuli, Cubatio sphaerae, Duplicitio cubii, and as soon as they were once more refuted by Wallis, reprinted them with an answer to the objections. Wallis, who had promised to leave him alone, refuted him again before the year was out. The exchange dragged on through numerous other papers until 1678.
In addition to publishing some ill-founded and controversial writings on mathematics and physics, Hobbes also continued to produce and publish philosophical works.
In 1654 Seth Ward (1617–1689), the Savilian professor of astronomy, replying in his Vindiciae academiarum to the assaults by Hobbes and others (especially John Webster) on the academic system. Errors in De Corpore, particularly in the mathematical sections, opened Hobbes to criticism from John Wallis, Savilian professor of geometry. Wallis's Elenchus geomeiriae Hobbianae, published in 1655, contained an elaborate criticism of Hobbes' whole attempt to put the foundations of mathematical science in its place within the general body of reasoned knowledge—a criticism which exposed the utter inadequacy of Hobbes' mathematics. Hobbes' lack of rigour meant that he spent himself in vain attempts to solve the impossible problems that often waylaid self-sufficient beginners, his interest was limited to geometry and he never had any notion of the full scope of mathematical science. He was unable to work out with any consistency the few original thoughts he had, and thus was an easy target. Hobbes took care to remove some of the worst mistakes exposed by Wallis, before allowing an English translation of the De Corpore to appear in 1656. But he still attacked Wallis in a series of Six Lessons to the Professors of Mathematics in 1656.
Wallis had an easy task in defending himself against Hobbes' criticism, and he seized the opportunity given him by the English translation of the De Corpore to re-confront Hobbes with his mathematical inconsistencies. Hobbes responded with Marks of the Absurd Geometry, Rural Language, Scottish Church Politics, and Barbarisms of John Wallis, Professor of Geometry and Doctor of Divinity. The thrusts were easily parried by Wallis in a reply (Hobbiani puncti dispunctio, 1657). Hobbes finally took refuge in silence and there was peace for a time.
Aahhh, fun and games in academia... Wright would fit right in, if he so chooses. Harvard, here I come.
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