How Boyle Became a Scientist

Bibliographic Data

ID4815294
AuthorsMichael Hunter (0000-0002-0307-9127, Birkbeck College, University of London, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume33
Issue1
Pages59-103
Publication date1995-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0073-2753 • E-ISSN: 1753-8564
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/007327539503300103
OpenAlexW141057762
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited12

This paper argues for a major change in Boyle’s preoccupations in 1649, when for the first time he discovered science. Previously he had been a moralistic writer, composing treatises that sought to instil ethical rectitude in his peers. Now, however, he encountered the excitement of experiment, which was to dominate his entire subsequent career. The most decisive evidence of this is provided by the sequence of dated ‘Diurnall Collections’ that Boyle compiled, the content of which in 1649 suddenly and irrevocably changes from moral apothegms to recipes and laboratory data. Attention is also drawn to an important group of texts written at around this time which differ markedly from Boyle’s earlier writings. At this point, Boyle not only advocated a major role for experimental knowledge; he also developed an intense concern for the need for erudition to defend the Bible and Christianity against the threats that they faced from a rationalist threat represented by Aristotelianism and ‘atheism’. The paper continues by speculating on the reasons for this change in Boyle’s preoccupations, including the influence of such figures as James Ussher and Benjamin Worsley, and his visit to the Netherlands in 1648. The paper ends with an ‘Appendix’ which assesses the claim of J.R. Jacob that Boyle’s idea were predicated on a ‘dialogue with the sects’. Here, it is argued that, on the contrary, Boyle was open-minded towards the sects, whom in certain respects he saw as allies in his campaign against excessive rationalism, and he continued to have links with figures whom some at the time would have shunned as ‘enthusiasts’ throughout his life

Art · Art history · Classics · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · History of Medicine Studies · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science

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