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Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, an English political philosopher from the 17th century, is depicted in a formal portrait wearing a dark coat and white lace cuffs, with his arms crossed and a serious expression.

English political philosopher (1588–1679), author of Leviathan, who fancied himself a geometer and conducted a long, public feud with the Oxford mathematician John Wallis over the foundations of mathematics. He rejected the new calculus and its infinitesimals as a logical scandal, attacking Torricelli's hyperbolic solid in print in 1656. The mathematical community treated his objections as a sideshow; historians of mathematics still find them clarifying.

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