| Description |
1 online resource (x, 196 pages) |
| Contents |
Chemical philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries: vitalism, Paracelsian alchemy, and Aristotelian hylomorphism -- Chemical philosophy vs. rationalistic mechanicism: the heuristic limits of Cartesianism for chemistry -- The ontological complexity of Boyle's corpuscularian theory: microstructure, natural kinds, and essential form -- Boyle's view of chemical properties as dispositional, relational, and emergent properties -- The relation between parts and wholes: the complex mereology of chymical atoms |
| Summary |
"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 emerged 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 an 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 chymistry from mechanics and physics"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from web page (Oxford Scholarship Online, viewed on August 27, 2020) |
| Subject |
Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.
|
| SUBJECT |
Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691 fast |
| Subject |
Chemistry -- History -- 17th century
|
|
Chemistry -- Philosophy -- History -- 17th century
|
|
Chemistry
|
|
Chemistry -- Philosophy
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| LC no. |
2020008359 |
| ISBN |
9780197502532 |
|
0197502539 |
|
9780197502518 |
|
0197502512 |
|
9780197502525 |
|
0197502520 |
|
