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,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226399001
• ISBN13: 9780226399003
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 433 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"