Notes on the Importance of Alchemy to Modern Science in the Writings of Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle

Ambix ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel West
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Robert Boyle

Nature’s green revolution

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Beerling
Keyword(s):  
Sodium Nitrate ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Potassium Nitrate ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Ageing Body

The scientific revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, if indeed it can be recognized as such, saw the foundations of modern science established. Developments by iconic figures, notably Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Galilei Galileo (1564–1642), Robert Boyle (1627–91), and Isaac Newton (1642–1727), among others, advanced the study of the natural world by moving it away from mystical concepts and grounding it firmly in the rational. Bacon outraged his intellectual contemporaries with the belief that scientific knowledge should be built on empirical observation and experimentation, and pursuing this theme is alleged to have done for him in the end, at the age of 65. According to Bacon’s former secretary, the legend goes that Bacon was travelling in a coach towards London with one of the King’s physicians on a snowy day in April 1626 when he decided to investigate whether meat could be preserved by ice. Seizing the opportunity for an experiment, Bacon purchased a chicken in Highgate, then a small village outside London, gutted it, and proceeded to stuff the carcass with snow to see if it delayed putrefaction. In his excitement he became oblivious to the cold, caught a chill, and took refuge in the Earl of Arundel’s nearby house in Highgate, the Earl being away serving time in the Tower of London. Bacon died a few days later, probably from pneumonia, after being put up in a guest room with a damp bed disused for over a year, but not before penning a letter to the Earl communicating the success of the experiment. This delightful story of Bacon’s ultimate demise would have been fitting for his contribution to modern science, but is probably apocryphal. Surviving records indicate Bacon was already ill before the end of 1625, and inclined to inhale opiates and the vapours of chemical saltpetre (potassium nitrate) to improve his spirits and strengthen his ageing body. In those days, the saltpetre was impure, a mixture of potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, and other compounds that may have given off toxic vapours. It seems possible, likely even, that Bacon overdosed on his inhalation of remedial substances to compensate for his ill health.

Francis Bacon and the Origins of Christian Virtuosity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Nuovo
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Natural Philosopher ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
The Mind

Although the vocation of Christian virtuoso was invented and named by Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon provided the archtype. A Christian virtuoso is an experimental natural philosopher who professes Christianity, who endeavors to unite empiricism and supernatural belief in an intellectual life. In his program for the renewal of the learning Bacon prescribed that the empirical study of nature be the basis of all the sciences, including not only the study of physical things, but of human society, and literature. He insisted that natural causes only be used to explain natural events and proposed not to mix theology with natural philosophy. This became a rule of the Royal Society of London, of which Boyle was a principal founder. Bacon’s rule also had a theological use, to preserve the purity and the divine authority of revelation. In the mind of the Christian virtuoso, nature and divine revelation were separate but complementary sources of truth.

The Curious Eye

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Webster
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Human Vision ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Robert Hooke ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Johannes Kepler ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Historical Moment

The Curious Eye explores early modern debates over two related questions: what are the limits of human vision, and to what extent can these limits be overcome by technological enhancement? Today, in our everyday lives we rely on optical technology to provide us with information about visually remote spaces even as we question the efficacy and ethics of such pursuits. But the debates surrounding the subject of technologically mediated vision have their roots in a much older literary tradition in which the ability to see beyond the limits of natural human vision is associated with philosophical and spiritual insight as well as social and political control. The Curious Eye provides insight into the subject of optically mediated vision by returning to the literature of the seventeenth century, the historical moment in which human visual capacity in the West was first extended through the application of optical technologies to the eye. Bringing imaginative literary works by Francis Bacon, John Milton, Margaret Cavendish, and Aphra Behn together with optical and philosophical treatises by Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton, The Curious Eye explores the social and intellectual impact of the new optical technologies of the seventeenth century on its literature. At the same time, it demonstrates that social, political, and literary concerns are not peripheral to the optical science of the period but rather an integral part of it, the legacy of which we continue to experience.

Feminist Criticisms of Metaphors in Bacon's Philosophy of Science

Philosophy ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
IDDO LANDAU
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Experimental Method ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Early Modern Science ◽  
Sexual Imagery ◽  
Sandra Harding ◽  
Witch Trials ◽  
Scientific Mind ◽  
Evelyn Fox Keller

Francis Bacon has received much attention from feminist philosophers of science. Many of their discussions revolve around his use of sexist, or supposedly sexist, metaphors. According to Sandra Harding, for example, ‘Bacon appealed to rape metaphors to persuade his audience that the experimental method is a good thing.’ Moreover, she claims that ‘when we realize that the mechanistic metaphors that organized early modern science themselves carried sexual meanings, it is clear that these meanings are central to the ways scientists conceptualize both the methods of inquiry and the models of nature’ (ibid.). Carolyn Merchant asserts that witch trials ‘influenced Bacon's philosophy and literary style’. And according to Evelyn Fox Keller, Bacon's explanation of the means by which science will endow humans with power ‘is given metaphorically — through his frequent and graphic use of sexual imagery.’ Fox Keller concludes that Bacon's theory is sexist, but in a more troubled and ambivalent way than Merchant and Harding believe it to be. Thus, she writes that ‘behind the overt insistence on the virility and masculinity of the scientific mind lies a covert assumption and acknowledgment of the dialectical, even hermaphroditic, nature of the “marriage between Mind and Nature.”‘ (p. 40; emphasis added). Likewise, ‘the aggressively male stance of Bacon's scientist could, and perhaps now should, be seen as driven by the need to deny what all scientists, including Bacon, privately have known, namely, that the scientific mind must be, on some level, a hermaphroditic mind.’ (p. 42).

scholarly journals Report. Robert Boyle for the twenty-ndash;first century

2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-90
Author(s):  
Michael Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
First Century ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
The Core ◽  
Introductory Material ◽  
The World ◽  
Digitized Images ◽  
Main Components

In recent years, major steps have been taken in terms of understanding and exploiting the vast archive of Robert Boyle (1627–91), which was presented to The Royal Society in 1769. The collection was first catalogued in the 1980s; since then, it has been extensively used in preparing the definitive editions of Boyle's Works (14 vols, 1999–2000) and Correspondence (6 vols, 2001), both published by Pickering & Chatto, and the edition of his ‘workdiaries’, which has been available online since 2001. Now, thanks to a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, various steps have been taken to enhance access to the archive—particularly by electronic means, and especially through the provision of high–quality digitized images of its key components—and thus to increase understanding of Boyle and his significance for the origins of modern science. The project, entitled ‘Robert Boyle for the twenty–first century’, is a joint initiative between Birkbeck (University of London), The Royal Society and Access to Archives. It has three main components: first, the revision of the catalogue of the Boyle archive and its presentation in online, searchable form; second, the creation of digitized images of the entire content of the core volumes of the Boyle Papers and the publication of these on the World Wide Web, some as illustrations to an updated edition of the workdiaries; and third, the provision of introductory material on Boyle aimed at schools on the Boyle website at Birkbeck.

Richard Baxter as Philosophical Theologian

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Sytsma
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Mechanical Philosophy ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Pierre Gassendi ◽  
The Way

This chapter argues for Baxter’s importance as a theologian engaged with philosophy. Although Baxter is largely known today as a practical theologian, he also excelled in knowledge of the scholastics and was known in the seventeenth century also for his scholastic theology. He followed philosophical trends closely, was connected with many people involved in mechanical philosophy, and responded directly to the ideas of René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, Thomas Hobbes, and Benedict de Spinoza. As a leading Puritan and nonconformist, his views are especially relevant to the question of the relation of the Puritan tradition to the beginnings of modern science and philosophy. The chapter introduces the way in which “mechanical philosophy” will be used, and concludes with a brief synopsis of the argument of the book.

‘Finding the Genuine Light of Nature’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronwen Price
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Significant Figures ◽  
Henry More ◽  
Modes Of Thought ◽  
Physical Phenomena ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Distinct Aspect

This chapter explores four significant figures: Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Henry More and Anne Conway, each of whom represents an important and distinct aspect of the relationship between religion and science in the early modern period. It considers diverse approaches to questions such as whether matter is connected to spirit and the extent to which the workings and causes of physical phenomena are separate from those of metaphysical design and purpose, thus demonstrating the ways in which theological and scientific concerns are frequently intertwined during this period. However, this chapter examines not only competing modes of thought, but also the interconnections between them. It shows how theories about the relationship between religion and science arose out of a self-conscious response to other voices and were informed by exchange of ideas and open-ended debate.

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