Known as one of the fathers of modern chemistry, Robert Boyle was one of the first people to truly adopt a scientific approach to not only philosophy, but the world as a whole. Boyle’s approach to viewing the world, would not only change the way scientists and philosophers viewed the world, but would change the way all people viewed the world.
Before Boyle’s contributions to the scientific community, scientists and philosophers were very unclear on how the world worked. Scientists were not certain why compounds react with others, and more importantly for Boyle, what makes up these compounds. At the time there were many views on the elements such as Aristotle’s view of the four elements as earth, air, water and fire, while Descartes believed in corpuscular particles. Boyle on the other hand strongly disagreed with Aristotle’s views and believed that Descartes’ views could not be proven without experimentation done to back up his viewpoints.
One of Boyle’s main arguments and what would manifest into one of the biggest contributions to the scientific world was the argument that would later build the atomic theory. His ideas supporting atomic theory were mainly shown through his work of The Sceptical Chymist. In his work, Boyle starts off by analyzing what are the parts that make up a compound, making the proposition, “It seems not absurd to conceive that at the first production of mixt bodies, the universal matter whereof they among other parts of the universe consisted, was actually divided into little particles of several sizes and shapes variously moved” (Sceptical Chymist). This proposition not only brings up the idea of particles making up the universe but also their “random” movement. This allowed for Boyle to begin with a foundation for his argument on elements as a whole with him then stating his second propositon that, “Neither is it impossible that of these minute particles divers of the smallest and neighboring ones were here and there associated into minute masses or clusters, and did by their coalitions constitute great store of such little primary concretions or masses as were not easily dissipable into such particles as composed them” (Sceptical Chymist). Boyle is able to conclude in this proposition that due to the particles interacting with one another, they are able to come together as a compound. Boyle claimed that the compounds shape, size and texture were all dependent on how the particles were arranged to form the compound itself. These two propositions within The Sceptical Chymist are similar to Descartes’ arguments on corpuscular theory, as they both discuss small particles being the basis of what makes up everything in the universe. Although unlike Descartes, Boyle differed by using chemistry through his experiments to study particles. Through experiments, Boyle was able to make the conclusion that even though certain substances are made up of particles, it is not the properties of the particles individually that define what the properties of the compound would be. This allowed for Boyle to make his own definition of what would be an element, the most basic form of a substance that is not able to be broken down into any simpler form.
With this view of what an element was, Boyle then argued against Aristotle’s popular viewpoints on the four elements within the universe being earth, air, water and fire. Boyle believed that there were more than these four elements that compose the universe and would prove it through experimentation. Yet again within the Sceptical Chymist, Boyle makes the proposition from Aristotle’s work that “every Seemingly Similar or Distinct Substance that is Separated from a Body by the Help of the Fire, was Pre-existent in it as a Principle or Element of it” (Sceptical Chymist). With this view on how fire reacts with the other elements meant that when fire was to break down a substance, the result should be the four elements that are no longer able to be broken down. With this in mind Boyle set up a series of combustion experiments in order to determine whether or not fire was able to break down a substance into more than four elements. Through his fire analysis Boyle “revealed that some compound bodies could be reduced to five, rather than only four, homogeneous elements” (Banchetti-Robino). This discovery allowed for Boyle to reject Aristotle’s theory of there just being four elements and allowed for a number of elements to be discovered. Although Boyle was able to discover that there were in fact more than just Aristotle’s four elements, Boyle was not able to conclude any specific element on its own. From Boyle’s perspective he was only able to question whether or not the element was a compound and was not able to do any experimentation on discovering whether or not an element was a compound itself or the purest mixture possible. Due to no experimentation being completed Boyle was ultimately only able to define an element as the most simple form of a substance that could not be broken down any further and was able to conclude there were a multitude of elements. Overall Boyle’s argument against Aristotle and his theories about corpuscular particles and how they react would eventually lead to atomic theory and help define what an element is.
Although this work was focused on chemistry, it was how he proved it that ultimately had an impact on the philosophers that would come after him. Due to Boyle’s view on having experimentation in order to come to a conclusion, Boyle had one of the biggest impacts on mechanical philosophy. Boyle’s views differed from the philosophers before him as he believed that if something was proposed it must be proved through a scientific view on the natural world. Philosophers before him like Descartes did not believe in the use of chemistry and science to prove their propositions. Even though Boyle thought Descartes could be correct about views on corpuscular particles, he believed that there must be experimentation to show its validity. Through experimentation done on corpuscular particles, Boyle was able to connect Descartes’ views on mechanical philosophy to actual experimentation. This connection would prove to have such a strong impact due to it allowing mechanical philosophy to be proven with science and connect it to natural philosophy and the real world. In time, this would result in philosophers such as Newton and Locke to then use experimentation in their own works, setting the foundation for how people view the world as a whole.
Glossary
Mixt Bodies – multiple elements forming one compound
Corpuscular – minute particles that are that can not be broken down into simpler substances
Works Cited
Banchetti-Robino, Maria Paolo. “Beyond Alchemy: Robert Boyle’s Mechanical Philosophy.” Research Outreach, 4 Jan. 2021, researchoutreach.org/articles/beyond-alchemy-robert-boyles-mechanical-philosophy/.
Boyle, Robert William. “The Origin of Forms and Qualities (According to the Corpuscular …” Edited by Johnathan Bennett, Https://Www.earlymoderntexts.com/Assets/Pdfs/boyle1666_2.Pdf, 2017, www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/boyle1666_2.pdf.
Boyle, Robert William. The Sceptical Chymist. 1666. Internet Archive, archive.org/details/scepticalchymist00boylrich/page/xviii/mode/2up. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.