My current book project focuses on early modern philosophical arguments regarding what makes bodies individual. I aim to connect late 16th century metaphysical debates among Scholastic Aristotelian philosophers about the individuation of natural substances to the foundations laid by René Descartes’ and Thomas Hobbes’ new matter theories for modern views of what constitutes an individual body. My book will advance beyond prior studies by examining arguments about individuation by understudied Scholastic philosophers, especially those teaching at Protestant universities in Western Europe.  I will then use this background to resolve long-standing points of contention regarding apparent inconsistencies among Descartes’ and Hobbes’ claims about the nature of matter and individual bodies.