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2 books match the query 'Squaring'

cover of Squaring the Circle: The War between Hobbes and Wallis

Squaring the Circle

The War between Hobbes and Wallis

Douglas M. Jesseph

University of Chicago Press, 1999

In 1655, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes claimed he had solved the centuries-old problem of "squaring of the circle" (constructing a square equal in area to a given circle). With a scathing rebuttal to Hobbes's claims, the mathematician John Wallis began one of the longest and most intense intellectual disputes of all time. Squaring the Circle is a detailed account of this controversy, from the core mathematics to the broader philosophical, political, and religious issues at stake.

Hobbes believed that by recasting geometry in a materialist mold, he could solve any geometric problem and thereby demonstrate the power of his materialist metaphysics. Wallis, a prominent Presbyterian divine as well as an eminent mathematician, refuted Hobbes's geometry as a means of discrediting his philosophy, which Wallis saw as a dangerous mix of atheism and pernicious political theory.

Hobbes and Wallis's "battle of the books" illuminates the intimate relationship between science and crucial seventeenth-century debates over the limits of sovereign power and the existence of God.
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cover of The Return of "Twin Peaks": Squaring the Circle

The Return of "Twin Peaks"

Squaring the Circle

Franck Boulègue

Intellect Books, 2022

In 2017, twenty-five years after its initial release, a new season of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s cultural touchstone Twin Peaks shook the world of television. In this volume, Franck Boulègue explores Twin Peaks: The Return through a philosophical, mythological, and spiritual lens. 

Divided into three sections, the book first examines the third season as expanded storytelling through the lens of Gene Youngblood's theory of synesthetic cinema, intertextuality, integrationist, and segregationist approaches in the realm of fiction, and focuses on the role of audio and visual superimpositions in The Return. It goes on to question the nature of the reality depicted in the seasons via scientific approaches, such as electromagnetism, time theory, and multiverses. The third and final section aims to transcend this vision by exploring the role of theosophy, the occult, and other spiritual sources. With a foreword by Matt Zoller Seitz, editor at large at RogerEbert.com and television critic for New York magazine, this book is essential reading for fans of the landmark show and anyone who studies it. 
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