Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an English philospher, physicist, mathematician, and historian. As a philosopher Hobbes contemplated the nature of reasoning, sensation, imagination, and signification. He is considered to have been an empiricist, a nominalist, and a materialist, the latter particularly contrasting his philosophy with that of Aristotle. Hobbes agreed with Aristotle, however, that reliable knowledge is gained through reason and an understanding of the relationship of cause and effect.