Routledge History of Philosophy Volume IV

GASSENDI AND HOBBES 221
Hobbes did not have a comparable grounding in the sciences or philosophy.
Prior to 1629 or 1630 he is supposed to have been completely innocent of
Euclid. When he took up residence in Paris in 1640 he had a respectable
grounding in the classics but a still not very deep knowledge of the elements of
geometry, or the new astronomy or mechanics. He was over 40 before he took a
serious interest in natural science or its methods, and he was probably over 50
before he began to articulate a considered general philosophy of his own. He had
published a translation of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian Wars in
1628. He had completed a treatise on psychology, morals and politics shortly
before leaving England for Paris in 1640. He may have composed a fairly
substantial optical work in the late 1630s, and a socalled ‘short tract’ on first
principles in natural philosophy as early as 1630: the date of the one and the
authorship of the other are not entirely certain. But it was apparently after
arriving in Paris rather than before that Hobbes engaged in any concentrated
scientific research.
That he developed an interest in natural philosophy at all was probably a kind
of accident. For most of his life he was attached to the households of successive
Earls of Devonshire as tutor, travelling companion, secretary, confidant, political
adviser, keeper of accounts and, finally, elderly retainer. From 1608, when he
first entered the service of the Devonshires, to 1629, when he temporarily took
employment elsewhere, he seems not to have had scientific interests. At Oxford
he had received an arts degree. As tutor he gave instruction in rhetoric, logic and
morals. In his spare time he studied classical poetry and history. It was not until
he left the Devonshires and was employed for two years as the travelling
companion of a baronet’s son on the European Grand Tour that he happened to
come upon an open copy of Euclid in a gentleman’s study. From then on,
according to Aubrey’s biography, Hobbes was in love with geometry. On this
journey to the Continent also he is supposed to have stopped for some months in
Paris in 1629. It was then that he met Mersenne, according to the latter’s
correspondence, probably becoming acquainted with some of the scientific
researches of Mersenne’s circle. 1 Another episode at about this time is supposed
to have made him curious about natural science. Either during the Grand Tour or
shortly afterwards Hobbes was present at a discussion of sense perception in
which it emerged that no one present was able to say what sense perception was.
His best scientific work—in optics—probably had its origins in thinking that was
prompted by this discussion.
After the Grand Tour Hobbes’s interest in science found outlets in England.
When he returned to the service of the Devonshires in 1631, he started to come
into frequent contact with a branch of his master’s family who lived at Welbeck,
near the Devonshire family home of Hardwick Hall. For the Welbeck
Cavendishes, who were headed by the Earl of Newcastle, he performed some of
the duties that he had been discharging for the Earls of Devonshire. He became
their adviser and agent and did other odd jobs. These Cavendishes had scientific
interests. The Earl of Newcastle is known to have sent Hobbes to London in the