Fisher (philosophy, American Council of Learned Societies) focuses on the epistemological and scientific element of Gassendi's thought, and on the relations between his empiricism and atomism, knowing full well the latter two may have great difficulties fitting together, but going through Gassendi's innovations in combining the thought of the past into a coherent pathway into reconciliation of the two ideas. To do so he covers Gassendi's constructive skepticist's theory of political knowledge, the scientific method in terms of the Regressus Demonstrativus and hypothetical reasoning, the atomist hypothesis, and atomism as empirical knowledge. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)