Teoria della luce e struttura della materia nello Short tract on first principles di Thomas Hobbes / Franco Giudice.
Abstract:
The aim of this essay is to analyze the theory of light and matter contained in the first of Hobbes' philosophical works, the Short Tract, dated back to about 1630-31. In this little treatise, concerned with laying the general foundations for a mechanistic conception of reality, Hobbes adopts an emissionistic theory and refuses to appeal to motion transmission through a medium. Although a theory of emission turns the physical reality of light into a motion of material particles spread from a bright source to the observer, there's no atomistic conception in the Short Tract. The relevance of this pamphlet among Hobbes' works lies in it being the first theoretical model created by Hobbes to explain luminous phenomena. But this model lasted for a very short time and, in 1636, it was replaced by a theory of the medium
Nuncius A. 11, fasc. 2 (1996), p. 545-561