On Hobbes’s distinction of accidents

Abstract

An interpolation introduced by K. Schuhmann in his critical edition of De corpore (chap. VI, § 13) diametrically overturns the meaning of Hobbes’s doctrine of distinction of accidents in comparison with all previous editions. The article focuses on the complexity of this crucial juncture in De corpore argument on which depends the interpretation of Hobbes’s whole conception of science. It discusses the reasons pro and contra Schuhmann’s interpolation and concludes against it, because it is not compatible with the rationale underlying the complex architecture of De corpore, which involves a symmetry between the ‘logical’ distinction of accidents and the ‘metaphysical’ distinction of phantasms.