The Chemical Philosophy of Robert Boyle

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Fundamental Particles ◽  
Scientific Autonomy ◽  
Present Book ◽  
Mechanistic Theory ◽  
Direct Explanation ◽  
Chemical Philosophy ◽  
Chemical Ontology

This book examines the way in which Robert Boyle seeks to accommodate his complex chemical philosophy within the framework of a mechanistic theory of matter. More specifically, the book proposes that Boyle regards chemical qualities as properties that emerge from the mechanistic structure of chymical atoms. Within Boyle’s chemical ontology, chymical atoms are structured concretions of particles that Boyle regards as chemically elementary entities, that is, as chemical wholes that resist experimental analysis. Although this interpretation of Boyle’s chemical philosophy has already been suggested by other Boyle scholars, the present book provides a sustained philosophical argument to demonstrate that, for Boyle, chemical properties are dispositional, relational, emergent, and supervenient properties. This argument is strengthened by a detailed mereological analysis of Boylean chymical atoms that establishes the kind of theory of wholes and parts that is most consistent with his emergentist conception of chemical properties. The emergentist position that is being attributed to Boyle supports his view that chemical reactions resist direct explanation in terms of the mechanistic properties of fundamental particles, as well as his position regarding the scientific autonomy of chemistry from mechanics and physics.

The Ontological Complexity of Boyle’s Corpuscularian Theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-108
Author(s):  
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Stability ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Substantial Form ◽  
Fundamental Particles ◽  
Essential Form ◽  
Chemical Philosophy ◽  
Taxonomical Classification

This chapter gives a detailed account of Boyle’s chemical philosophy, placing special emphasis on his replacement of substantial form with the mechanistic notion of essential form as the source of chemical stability. For Boyle, essential form results from the structural arrangement of fundamental particles into aggregate corpuscles that account for a substance’s distinctive chemical properties. The chapter sets the background for Boyle’s theory of matter by first discussing his attack on the Scholastic notion of substantial form and on the Paracelsian principles of the tria prima. After this, the chapter focuses on Boyle’s distinctive mechanistic corpuscularianism, by highlighting the hierarchical aspects of this theory of composition and microstructure. The chapter then contrasts the views of Boyle and Locke regarding natural kinds and taxonomical classification and discusses the reduction to the pristine state, a key experiment used by Boyle to lend empirical support to the theory of microstructural essential form.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-172
Author(s):  
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Philosophy Of Chemistry ◽  
Chemical Philosophy ◽  
The Way

The conclusion recapitulates the thesis that has been defended in the book, reiterating the relevance of Boyle’s chemical philosophy for current debates in the philosophy of chemistry. The concluding remarks proceed to articulate the way in which Boyle’s emergentist conception of chemical qualities anticipates many of the positions currently taken by philosophers of chemistry, particularly with regard to the emergence and supervenience of chemical properties, epistemic and explanatory reductionism, and the autonomy of chemical explanations and of chemistry as a scientific discipline.

Boyle’s View of Chemical Properties as Dispositional, Relational, and Emergent Properties

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-145
Author(s):  
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Extensive Discussion ◽  
Experimental Programme ◽  
Chemical Ontology

This chapter presents original arguments for the view that Boyle regarded chemical properties as being dispositional, relational, and emergent properties. The chapter begins by discussing the hierarchy of properties in Boyle’s chemical ontology and Boyle’s notion of sensible properties as being dispositional and relational. Both of these sections are informed by Peter Anstey’s discussion of these topics. The chapter then moves beyond Anstey’s discussion by arguing for the view that Boyle regarded chemical properties as dispositional, relational, emergent, and supervenient properties. The chapter cites many examples from Boyle’s writings to demonstrate that he considered chemical properties to display the various features that are required for emergence, that is, supervenience, non-summative difference, and underdetermination. After this extensive discussion, the chapter concludes by establishing that Boyle also considered cosmical qualities as dispositional and relational, thus demonstrating the considerable philosophical sophistication of Boyle’s natural philosophy and of his entire experimental programme.

Chemical Philosophy vs. Rationalistic Mechanicism

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-78
Author(s):  
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Mechanical Philosophy ◽  
Modern Chemistry ◽  
Mechanistic Theory ◽  
Chemical Philosophy ◽  
Pierre Gassendi

This chapter focuses on the mechanical philosophy as it relates to early modern chemistry and chemical philosophy. The chapter begins by addressing the Cartesian rejection of Scholastic substantial forms, since this is one of the aspects of mechanicism that made it attractive to Boyle. After this, the chapter discusses the revival of Epicurean atomism and its reformation by Pierre Gassendi and other early modern atomists. The chapter then addresses the limitations of the Cartesian mechanical philosophy for chemistry and the tensions that existed between mechanicism and experimental natural philosophy, focusing especially on the views of the French Cartesians. Finally, the chapter then discusses Boyle’s own commitment to the mechanistic theory of matter. To this end, the chapter proposes to examine Boyle’s experimental research programme from a Lakatosian perspective, and suggests that the mechanical philosophy functioned both as a negative and as a positive heuristic within that research programme.

Statistical criteria of stellar population types

1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
W. Iwanowska
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Population ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Spectrophotometric Study ◽  
Physical And Chemical Properties ◽  
Population Type ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Distribution Parameters ◽  
Physical And Chemical ◽  
Statistical Criteria ◽  
And Chemical Properties

In connection with the spectrophotometric study of population-type characteristics of various kinds of stars, a statistical analysis of kinematical and distribution parameters of the same stars is performed at the Toruń Observatory. This has a twofold purpose: first, to provide a practical guide in selecting stars for observing programmes, second, to contribute to the understanding of relations existing between the physical and chemical properties of stars and their kinematics and distribution in the Galaxy.

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