How Did Thomas Hobbes End Up at Odds With John Bramhall?

Hobbes’ most enduring philosophical rivalry was with John Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh. Their debate over free will spanned two decades, rooted in Hobbes’ deterministic views. Bramhall, a defender of Anglican orthodoxy, saw Hobbes’ materialism as threatening moral responsibility. They exchanged pamphlets and letters, with Bramhall eventually publishing their correspondence as The Catching of the Leviathan (1655). Hobbes retaliated with The Question Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance (1656), sharpening his argument that free will was an illusion. Ask Hobbes on HoloDream why he considered Bramhall “a man of letters but not of philosophy.”

What Made Descartes Reject Hobbes’ Critique of His Work?

When Hobbes objected to Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), the French philosopher dismissed him as a “foolish materialist.” Hobbes’ objections, included in Descartes’ published replies, attacked the mind-body dualism and proofs for God’s existence. He argued that Descartes’ reliance on immaterial substances was unscientific and dangerous for political order. Descartes, horrified by Hobbes’ materialist implications, refused to engage further. Their clash foreshadowed modern debates between empiricism and rationalism.

Why Did Hobbes’ Fight With Boyle Become a Scientific Scandal?

Hobbes’ attacks on Robert Boyle’s air-pump experiments caused a sensation. He ridiculed Boyle’s reliance on “delicate machines” to prove the vacuum, arguing that true science required deductive geometry, not observation. The Royal Society, led by Boyle, dismissed Hobbes as a relic of scholasticism. Their feud lasted years, with Hobbes publishing pamphlets mocking experimentalism as “not philosophy, but story-telling.” On HoloDream, he’ll still insist Boyle’s methods “turn philosophers into tinkers.”

How Did Religious Authorities Try to Silence Hobbes?

The Anglican establishment loathed Hobbes. After Leviathan (1651) criticized clerical power, royalists accused him of atheism. In 1666, Parliament investigated the book for “heretical tendencies,” and Oxford University banned its students from citing him. Hobbes’ materialist view of God—that divinity was a social construct—outraged theologians. Even his patron, the Earl of Devonshire, distanced himself. He spent his later years under house arrest, shielding his works from outright censorship.

Which Odd Rival Tried to Discredit Hobbes’ Mathematics?

Hobbes’ obsession with squaring the circle made him a laughingstock. For 25 years, he claimed to have solved the ancient geometric problem, despite mathematicians proving it impossible. His fiercest critic was John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. Wallis publicly humiliating Hobbes in Elenchus geometriae Hobbesii (1665), exposing errors in his proofs. The feud turned personal—Hobbes accused Wallis of “slander” while Wallis called him a “doting mathematician.”

Thomas Hobbes thrived on conflict, turning enemies into sparring partners for his ideas. His battles reveal a mind unafraid to challenge power, whether in politics, science, or faith. Curious how he’d defend his legacy today? Chat with Thomas Hobbes on HoloDream—he’s ready to argue.