Walter Warner (ca.1557-1643) and his notes on Animal Organisms

Abstract

As opposed to most of his contemporaries, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) assumed that all phenomena could be explained in terms of matter in motion. All the more intriguing is his suggestion that what he wrote came out of his own head. Yet, already during his lifetime he was accused of having taken his natural philosophy from the mathematician and natural philosopher Walter Warner (ca. 1557-1643). Warner’s posthumous notes were said to suggest that he worked on the development of a natural philosophical system, based on atomism. According to some historians Hobbes’ materialistic and mechanistic psychology would have been marked substantially by Warner’s ideas on the physiological and psychological functions of animal organisms. This investigation was triggered by that suggestion. It centres on the following questions: Up to what point Warner’s reputation as an early representative of materialism or a mechanical philosophy is justified by what is known about his life and work? What were his ideas about the vital functions of animal organisms and to what extent does he show himself in that respect to be a materialist or a mechanical philosopher? What was the influence of these ideas on Hobbes? Historical research gives the impression that only near the end of his life did Warner get some recognition as a scientist, i.e. as a mathematician and optical scientist. If he was indeed the writer of the notes ascribed to him, Warner had changed from an eclectical Aristotelian into a corspuscularist. However that may be, the notes on animal organisms were not written by an atomist but inspired by a mixture of elements from the Scholastic tradition and ideas characteristic of Italian natural philosophy from the last quarter of the sixteenth century. His talks with Warner might have strengthened Hobbes in his materialist-mechanist views. Yet, there is nothing to justify the claim that in this Warner had a substantial influence on Hobbes. Apart from the fact that their views differ in many respects, Hobbes had already laid the foundations of his philosophical system before getting acquinted with Warner.