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Thomas Hobbes’s Elements of Law and His Third Objections to Descartes’s Meditations

Discourse of the Method by René Descartes—one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy—was published in 1637, yet only eight years before, as we learn from the author’s letters, he had developed a conception for his Meditations.1 Its publication, however, had been postponed on account of unfavourable circumstances for more than 10 years, until 1641. One of the ways to earn the favour of the readers was by the distribution of copies of the work to various circles of scholars with a request to make detailed comments, which was done by Father Mersenne, a staunch supporter of Descartes in the endeavours to propagate new philosophy. This way the author of the Meditations wanted to protect himself against inevitable criticism. The polemics thus conceived, along with the answers by Descartes himself, were to be an integral part of the work, from now on known as the Objections. And although this stratagem did not fully accomplish its mission, it must be admitted that if we perceive it as an attempt to get the author of the Meditations to specify his opinions in more detail and dispel at least some of the ambiguities, then it was worth its while.