The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest

The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest PDF Author: Robert Boyle
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691016788
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest

The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest PDF Author: Robert Boyle
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691016788
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Aspiring Adept

The Aspiring Adept PDF Author: Lawrence M. Principe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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The Aspiring Adept

The Aspiring Adept PDF Author: Lawrence Principe
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691186286
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The Aspiring Adept presents a provocative new view of Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution, by revealing for the first time his avid and lifelong pursuit of alchemy. Boyle has traditionally been considered, along with Newton, a founder of modern science because of his mechanical philosophy and his experimentation with the air-pump and other early scientific apparatus. However, Lawrence Principe shows that his alchemical quest--hidden first by Boyle's own codes and secrecy, and later suppressed or ignored--positions him more accurately in the intellectual and cultural crossroads of the seventeenth century. Principe radically reinterprets Boyle's most famous work, The Sceptical Chymist, to show that it criticizes not alchemists, as has been thought, but "unphilosophical" pharmacists and textbook writers. He then shows Boyle's unambiguous enthusiasm for alchemy in his "lost" Dialogue on the Transmutation and Melioration of Metals, now reconstructed from scattered fragments and presented here in full for the first time. Intriguingly, Boyle believed that the goal of his quest, the Philosopher's Stone, could not only transmute base metals into gold, but could also attract angels. Alchemy could thus act both as a source of knowledge and as a defense against the growing tide of atheism that tormented him. In seeking to integrate the seemingly contradictory facets of Boyle's work, Principe also illuminates how alchemy and other "unscientific" pursuits had a far greater impact on early modern science than has previously been thought.

The Boyle Papers

The Boyle Papers PDF Author: Michael Hunter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351893718
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
Robert Boyle (1627-91) was the most influential British scientist of the late seventeenth century. His huge archive, which has been at the Royal Society since 1769, has only recently been explored, leading to a new understanding of many aspects of Boyle's thought. This volume brings together the essential materials for understanding the Boyle Papers. It includes a revised version of Michael Hunter's fundamental study of the archive, first published in 1992, which elucidates its history and the way in which handwriting evidence can be used to identify chronological strata within it, thus making it possible to trace the development of Boyle's ideas. Other chapters deal with such components of the Papers as Boyle's 'workdiaries' and his projected Paralipomena; another uses material from the archive to illuminate the making of a key work by Boyle, his Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature; while another illustrates that, large as the archive is, it is only a part of what existed in Boyle's lifetime. Parts of the content have been published before, but they are here presented in revised and fully indexed form. Lastly, the volume includes a completely revised version of the catalogue of the Boyle Papers, Letters and ancillary manuscripts originally published in 1992, updating it by tabulating the extensive use of the archive made in recent years in connection with the publication of the definitive editions of Boyle's Works and Correspondence (1999-2001). In all, the volume will be indispensable to anyone with a serious interest in Boyle.

Alchemy Tried in the Fire

Alchemy Tried in the Fire PDF Author: William R. Newman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226577023
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
William Newman and Lawrence Principe reveal the hitherto hidden laboratory experiments of a famous alchemist and argue that many of the principles and practices characteristic of modern chemistry derive from alchemy.

Cultivating Perfection

Cultivating Perfection PDF Author: Louis Komjathy
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004160388
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
Employing a comparative religious studies approach, this book provides a comprehensive discussion of early Quanzhen as a Daoist religious movement charactized by asceticism, alchemical transformation, and mystical experiencing. Emphasis is placed on the complex interplay among views of self, religious praxis, and religious experience.

Elements, Principles and Corpuscles

Elements, Principles and Corpuscles PDF Author: Antonio Clericuzio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401594643
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
In Elements, Principles and Particles, Antonio Clericuzio explores the relationships between chemistry and corpuscular philosophy in the age of the Scientific Revolution. Science historians have regarded chemistry and corpuscular philosophy as two distinct traditions. Clericuzio's view is that since the beginning of the 17th century atomism and chemistry were strictly connected. This is attested by Daniel Sennert and by many hitherto little-known French and English natural philosophers. They often combined a corpuscular theory of matter with Paracelsian chemical (and medical) doctrines. Boyle plays a central part in the present book: Clericuzio redefines Boyle's chemical views, by showing that Boyle did not subordinate chemistry to the principles of mechanical philosophy. When Boyle explained chemical phenomena, he had recourse to corpuscles endowed with chemical, not mechanical, properties. The combination of chemistry and corpuscular philosophy was adopted by a number of chemists active in the last decades of the 17th century, both in England and on the Continent. Using a large number of primary sources, the author challenges the standard view of the corpuscular theory of matter as identical with the mechanical philosophy. He points out that different versions of the corpuscular philosophy flourished in the 17th century. Most of them were not based on the mechanical theory, i.e. on the view that matter is inert and has only mechanical properties. Throughout the 17th century, active principles, as well as chemical properties, are attributed to corpuscles. Given its broad coverage, the book is a significant contribution to both history of science and history of philosophy.

The Works of Robert Boyle, Part II Vol 1

The Works of Robert Boyle, Part II Vol 1 PDF Author: Michael Hunter
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040243991
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
Including all Robert Boyle's published works, this is the final seven volumes of a 14-volume set. All texts are fully annotated and comprehensively indexed. Works originally in Latin are presented in their contemporary English translations.

The Works of Robert Boyle, Part II Vol 2

The Works of Robert Boyle, Part II Vol 2 PDF Author: Michael Hunter
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040232906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Including all Robert Boyle's published works, this is the final seven volumes of a 14-volume set. All texts are fully annotated and comprehensively indexed. Works originally in Latin are presented in their contemporary English translations.

Robert Boyle, 1627-91

Robert Boyle, 1627-91 PDF Author: Michael Hunter
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780851157986
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
A re-evaluation of Boyle in the light of new evidence of his tortured religious life and his difficult relations with his contemporaries.