ORIGINS OF MODERNITY

natural philosophy

Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)
Decameron physiologicum, or, Ten dialogues of natural philosophy.
London : Printed by J.C. for W. Crook, 1678.

This work is one of a number of books in which the philosopher Thomas Hobbes developed a mechanistic system of natural philosophy. Hobbes' system is an interesting mixture of the old and the new. He develops an account of matter and motion in the spirit of Descartes and other mechanical philosophers, but he retains many Aristotelian premises and doctrines. He denied the possibility of a vacuum in spite of mounting experimental evidence to the contrary.