The Ghost of Sendivogius

2018 ◽  
pp. 452-481
Author(s):  
William R. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sulfur Content ◽  
Phlogiston Theory ◽  
Chemical Revolution ◽  
Refractive Power ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Graphic Representations ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Century Development ◽  
Affinity Tables

This chapter builds on Newton's increasing interest in sulfur, placing his theories in the context of developments within the chymical community of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It provides a new look at Newton's developing ideas about affinity and his role in the eighteenth-century development of affinity tables, the graphic representations of selective attractions by materials that cause those with less affinity to precipitate. Newton's attribution of refractive power to the sulfur content of illuminated materials justifies the view that he held a chymical theory of light. Nor did this fact escape his successors. In the years directly before the Chemical Revolution of the late eighteenth century, European chymists tried to push Newton's chymistry of light further by attaching his linkage of refractivity and sulfur to the phlogiston theory championed by Georg Ernst Stahl.

What Was Revolutionary about the Chemical Revolution?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas W. Best
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Philosophy Of Chemistry ◽  
Chemical Revolution ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Philosophical Account ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tacit Assumptions

THE CHANGES TO CHEMICAL theory and practice that took place in late eighteenth-century France were truly revolutionary because of the radical nature of the theoretical and methodological changes that occurred, because they were deliberately so, and because that was the start of a tradition in the philosophy of chemistry. What makes the Chemical Revolution unique among scientific revolutions is that it was anticipated by both philosophers and scientists before it occurred. This meant that the chemists who effected those changes were aware of the subversive nature of their reforms and carried out the revolution in a deliberate fashion. Three major shifts in the science of chemistry coincided in late eighteenth-century France to make the Chemical Revolution the turning point in the history of chemistry: Oxygen chemistry overthrew the reigning phlogiston theory; a cadre of prominently political chemists reformed chemical terminology, providing a new system of names based on oxygen theory; and an empiricopragmatic conception of elements as simple substances replaced a waning belief in hypostatical chemical principles. This last shift (although itself gradual) ensured that the revolutionary changes in theory and nomenclature would be the last truly radical reforms chemistry would ever need. Furthermore, the Chemical Revolution was itself a revolution in the philosophy of chemistry as it forced a change in tacit assumptions about the nature of both matter and scientific knowledge. Moreover, studies of this revolution have long shaped general philosophy of science and continue to do so. Cherry-picking the history of science for examples to fit an a priori philosophical theory should be even less acceptable in philosophy of the special sciences than in other branches of philosophy. If philosophers of science are to learn from history, it should be by analyzing changes within periods that historians recognize as revolutionary and giving a philosophical account. Hence the Chemical Revolution is a crucial point for even the most minimally naturalistic philosophy of chemistry. For some time now, historians of science have understood that the chemistry practiced before the 1770s cannot be dismissed as prescientific mysticism, as was once supposed.

Corpulent Cattle and Milk Machines: Nature, Art and the Ideal Type

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Moving Targets ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Century Development ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe concept of a "breed" of domestic cattle is predominantly a social construct. The late eighteenth century development of intensive selective (in)breeding of livestock produced breeds that were visually distinguishable from each other. The adoption of breed standards was facilitated in part through paintings and drawings of idealized animals. These "ideal types" or "standards of perfection" further served as targets for breeders who attempted to achieve the artist's conception of the perfect animal. However, concepts of perfection change with fashion and thus ideal types constitute moving targets.

Eighteenth Century Narrative Variations on “Frol Skobeev”

Slavic Review ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 46 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 529-539
Author(s):  
Gitta Hammarberg
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Prose Fiction ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Narrative Prose ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Century Development

One of the most striking innovations in late eighteenth century prose fiction was the introduction of a distinct narrator's voice. To throw some light on the emergence of this innovation, I will compare three works: “Povest’ o Frole Skobeeve,“ an anonymous work from the 1720s; Ivan Novikov's “Novgorodskikh devushek sviatochnyi vecher,” which appeared in a 1785 collection of his short stories; and Nikolai Karamzin's “Natal'ia, boiarskaia doch',” which appeared serially in his Moskovskii zhurnal in 1792. These works will be viewed as representative of three stages in the eighteenth century development of narrative prose structure.

IUPAC Engagement in the Instrumental Revolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Carsten Reinhardt
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Theoretical Base ◽  
Deep Impact ◽  
Chemical Revolution ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Material Sciences

Abstract In the second half of the Twentieth Century, the chemical and molecular sciences experienced a deep transformation with regard to the types of research instruments used, and the associated methods involved. Historians have coined this development the Instrumental Revolution, and even described it as the Second Chemical Revolution [1]. With the latter notion, they referred to the First Chemical Revolution of the late eighteenth century, when Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and his allies transformed chemistry’s theoretical framework along with its nomenclature, creating modern chemistry. The “second” chemical revolution of the twentieth century had an equally deep impact on chemistry’s theoretical base, linking chemistry to quantum physics, and expanding its range into the life sciences and technologies, the material sciences, and engineering. However, the related changes in terminology and nomenclature have largely escaped the historian’s attention, and this might explain why IUPAC’s role in the Instrumental Revolution has not been investigated in any detail. In the following, I will first briefly describe the Instrumental Revolution, and its main impact on chemistry and related fields, before sketching IUPAC’s role in facilitating and enhancing it [2].

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