Atom and Individual in the Age of Newton. On the Genesis of the Mechanistic World View (review)

Given his concern with Hobbes's views about science, method and related topics, especially as they are presented in De Corpore, it is strange that Sorell does not refer to the work by Hunger land and Vick, some of which appeared in this journal, and a recent translation and commentary on the first part of De Corpore (New York: Abaris Books, 1981 ). Sorell often quotes a seventeenth-century translation, as if it were Hobbes's own text. Yet, although he approved it, it is not Hobbes's own text, and one can object to certain key passages of that translation. It would have been wiser for Sorell to quote the more recent and readable translation. What is most lacking in Sorell's book is any significant attention to Hobbes's views about religion. This omission is objectionable because Sorrell represents himself as giving a general account of Hobbes's philosophy and putting it into a correct historical context. In fact, the account is distorted by ignoring the importance of religion for both Hobbes and his contemporaries. These criticisms should not obscure the genuine merits of this book. It contains a thoughtful and fresh approach to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. A. P. MARTINICH University of Texas, Austin