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Metascience (2010) 19:113115 DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9354-y
BOOK REVIEW
Matter over mind
George Macdonald Ross: Starting with Hobbes. Continuum Publishing, London, 2009, vii + 181 pp, 12.99 Pbk
Niall Shanks
Published online: 11 March 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Students have been known to complain that Descartes wrote much better English than Hobbes! Perhaps modern students, whose only acquaintance with Hobbes consists of highly selective readings of his political philosophy couched in the fruity English of the King James Bible, have a point to make, especially given that Descartes has been so well served by his modern translators.
Professor Macdonald Ross has performed a wonderful service for those of us who teach modern philosophy and the history of science by writing a comprehensive introduction to Hobbes philosophical views on theory of knowledge, materialism, human nature, society and religion. The numerous quotations from Hobbes works have been rendered into clear modern English (and these quotations include some of the authors excellent translations of Hobbes writings in Latinmaterials typically not readily available or accessible to students taking introductory courses). Perhaps after reading Hobbes presented this way, with the authors excellent explanations of complex issues, students may come to sympathize with the report by Hobbes friend John Aubrey, according to which, Mr. Hobbes was wont to say that had Des Cartes kept himself wholly to Geometrie that he had been the best Geometer in the world but that his head did not lye for Philosophy.
In a manner reminiscent of the resoluto-compositive method shaping Hobbes own views, Macdonald Ross has disentangled the central Hobbesian themes that, when comprehended and woven together, constitute the fabric of Hobbes philosophy. I will follow the authors discussion of particular themes. Thus we begin with Hobbes epistemology. The discussion begins with...