Natural philosophy Boyle

Jacob, J.R. The ideological origins of Robert Boyle s natural philosophy. J Europe Studs 2(1972) 1-21. 

Boyle first became interested in natural philosophy during the late 1640s, and he was intrigued by the idea of alchemical transmutations from the very first. From the time he set up a laboratory in Stalbridge to the end of his life, the pursuit of the Philosopher s Stone was always one of his preoccupations. Boyle s personal library contained numerous books on alchemy, and a great many manuscripts describing alchemical experiments were found among his papers after his death. 

From the Advertisement to Robert Boyle, Mechanical Origin and Production of QualitieSy as given in the source-book, Marie Boas, Robert Boyle on Natural Philosophy (Bloomington, Indiana Indiana University Press, 1965), 234. 

Hall, Boyle on Natural Philosophy, 269-270. Hall, Boyle on Natural Philosophy, 380-381. 

Robert Boyle on Natural Philosophy / An Essay with Selections from... 

Boyle s return was delayed until 1644 by the Irish Rebellion which embarrassed for a time the affairs of the English Lord Treasurer, his father, and determined Robert to go on to their English estate at Stallbridge, where he lived until 1650, applying himself devotedly to his researches into natural philosophy and chemistry. In 1654 he removed to Oxford, where he continued his scientific work and was associated with the framers of the Royal Society in 1662 of which he was President from 1680 until his death in 1691. 

His major contributions were twofold. First, he convincingly championed chemistry as an important part of the new natural philosophy of the seventeenth century. More precisely, Boyle argued that chemical philosophy and corpuscular philosophy provided important support for one another. We will soon consider the nature of corpuscular philosophy. For now, it is enough to note that it offered mechanical explanations, based on the behavior of corpuscles. These corpuscles might be aggregations, groups, or clumps of atoms, which were in principle divisible. Alternatively, they might simply be individual atoms, which by definition were indivisible. Boyle made chemistry compatible with the new, fashionable, and dominant kind of scientific explanation. His second major contribution, partly borrowed from Starkey, was the development of an experimental metbod m chemistry that made it fit into the new... 

Boyles contributions to chemistry were numerous and significant. He advanced chemical classification a long way, and his category of neutral substances was valuable for an understanding of the chemistry of salts. Making chemistry a respectable part of natural philosophy was of great importance. The experimental method that Boyle devised, with its emphasis on evidence, repeatability, public verification, quantification, and the use of pure materials, was of even greater importance. His mechanical explanations, however, were ultimately sterile. 

Robert Boyle had made chemistry part of the new and eminently respectable natural philosophy based on corpuscular philosophy. His explanations for... 

The classic account is Marie Boas, Robert Boyle. See also Boas s introductory essay in Robert Boyle on Natural Philosophy (Indiana University Press, 1965), 81-93. On the role of chemistry in shaping Boyle s experimental philosophy, see Rose-Mary Sargent, Learning from Experience Boyle s Construction of an Experimental Philosophy, in Robert Boyle Reconsidered, ed. M. Hunter (Cambridge University Press, 1994) idem. The Diffident Naturalist (University of Chicago Press, 1995). 

Boerhaave s rejection of the chemical principles stemmed from the work of Robert Boyle. As has been well-documented by historians, the Leiden professor had a great admiration for Boyle, not only regarding his natural philosophy and programmatic investigation of chymical topics, but also regarding what Boerhaave took to be Boyle s... 

For the study of matter, Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was a pivotal thinker who introduced new methods, new tools, and a new philosophy to chemistry. Boyle was the seventh son of the Earl of Cork, and he went to school at Eton, traveled widely in Europe, and settled in Oxford, where he joined with other men interested in natural philosophy to study the important questions of the day. He would eventually be one of the founding members of the Royal Society of London and hoped to bring together the best and brightest minds in natural philosophy. 

Boyle, Robert. (1627-1691). A native of Ireland, Boyle devoted his life to experiments in what was then called natural philosophy, i.e., physical science. He was influenced early by Galileo. His interest aroused by a pump that had just been invented, Boyle studied the properties of air, on which he wrote a treatise (1660). Soon thereafter, he stated the famous law that bears his name (see following entry). Boyle s group of scientific enthusiasts was known as the invisible college , and in 1663 it became the Royal Society of London. Boyle was one of the first to apply the principle that Francis Bacon had described as the new method —namely, inductive experimentation as opposed to the deductive method of Aristotle—and this became and has remained the cornerstone of scientific research. Boyle also investigated hydrostatics, desalination of seawater, crystals, electricity, etc. He approached but never quite stated the atomic theory of matter however, he did distinguish between compounds and mixtures and conceived the idea of particles becoming associated to form molecules. 

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