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3 - First philosophy and the foundations of knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
Yves Charles Zarka
Edited by
Tom Sorell
Tom Sorell
Affiliation:
University of Essex
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Summary

Hobbes's philosophical project is bound up with a rational reconstruction of knowledge. At what point did this reconstruction become associated with a first philosophy that was intended to explicate the most basic concepts and principles of knowledge? Did the development of the first philosophy coincide with the formulation, at the end of 1636 or the beginning of 1637, of a complete system of philosophy: corpus, homo, civis, which was to lead to Elementa philosophiae, or did it come later? Did the first philosophy have something to do with the logic that Hobbes was questioned about in Kenelm Digby's letters? It is difficult to give firm answers to these questions because the dating of the manuscripts marking the successive stages of the composition of the first philosophy is for the most part uncertain.

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The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes , pp. 62 - 85
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

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