Evolution of the Doctrine of Signatures of Things and the Adamic Language in the Chemical Philosophy of the 16th and 17th Centuries

The aim of the paper is to investigate paths along which a transformation of the doctrine of natural signs was developed in works by Paracelsians, forming one of the main religious and philosophic currents of Late Renaissance. The modifications of the doctrine are discussed in a context of intensive speculations on the essence of the primordial language of humankind and on the possibility of its restoration, which can describe the intellectual life of that epoch. It is argued that within “chemical philosophy” the possibility of restoration of the Adamic language directly depends on mastering the art of interpreting natural signs (signatura rerum), which can give a key to correct understanding of nature. And shifts in the conceptualization of such signatures involved transformations in formulating and solving of the Adamistic problems, which did not exclude reverse causation. It is also ascertained that the most orthodox followers of Paracelsus usually appealed to the Adamistic narrative in order to reinforce legitimacy of the symbolic hermeneutics of nature, developed with chiefly medico-pharmacological purposes. Meanwhile, relatively more independent Paracelsians often paid more attention to linguo-philosophic issues. Realizing the deficiency of the doctrine of signatures for reconstruction of the primordial language, they postulated the necessity of one (or two) of the following premises: (a) supplementing the doctrine with a mystical illumination; (b) acceptance of a weaker version, according to which natural signs are just sparse reference points slightly simplifying empirical study of nature; (c) abandonment of search for the Ursprache and constructing its artificial substitute, a universal semiotic system.

Conclusion

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.

The Chemical Philosophy of Robert Boyle

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

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.

Chemical Philosophy vs. Rationalistic Mechanicism

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.