The Chemical Philosophy of Robert Boyle: Mechanicism, Chymical Atoms, and Emergence

Cover
The Chemical Philosophy of Robert Boyle
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Introduction 
1. Chemical Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries: Vitalism, Paracelsian Alchemy, and Aristotelian Hylomorphism
	1.1 The Vitalistic Character of Renaissance Alchemy
	1.2 The Scholastic Theory of Substantial Form
	1.3 Paracelsian Spagyria and the Tria Prima
	1.4 Semina Rerum, Minima Naturalia, and Vitalistic Corpuscularianism
	1.5 Daniel Sennert’s Structural Hylomorphism and Atomicity as a Negative-​Empirical Concept
	1.6 Jan Baptista van Helmont and the Chemical Interpretation of Spirit and Ferment
2. Chemical Philosophy vs. Rationalistic Mechanicism: The Heuristic Limits of Cartesianism for Chemistry
	2.1 The Cartesian Rejection of Substantial Forms
	2.2 Pierre Gassendi and the Reformation of Epicurean Atomism
	2.3 The Limitations of the Cartesian Project for Chemistry and Chemical Philosophy
	2.4 Mechanistic Corpuscularianism and Experimental Natural Philosophy
	2.5 Boyle’s Relation to the Cartesian Project in Natural Philosophy
	2.6 The Negative and Positive Heuristic Functions of the Mechanical Philosophy in Boyle’s Scientific Research Programme
3. The Ontological Complexity of Boyle’s Corpuscularian Theory: Microstructure, Natural Kinds, and Essential Form
	3.1 The Sceptical Chymist: Against Scholastics and Spagyrists
	3.2 Boyle’s Corpuscularian Theory of Matter
	3.3 Composition vs. Microstructure
	3.4 Taxonomical Classification, Natural Kinds, and Essential Form
	3.5 The Empirical Nature of Essential Form: The Reduction to the Pristine State
4. Boyle’s View of Chemical Properties as Dispositional, Relational,  and Emergent Properties
	4.1 The Hierarchy of Properties in Boyle’s Chemical Ontology
	4.2 Sensible Properties as Dispositional and Relational
	4.3 Chemical Properties as Dispositional and Relational
	4.4 Chemical Properties as Emergent and Supervenient
	4.5 Supervenience, Non-​Summative Difference, and Underdetermination
	4.6 Cosmical Qualities as Dispositional and Relational Properties
5. The Relation between Parts and Wholes: The Complex Mereology  of Chymical Atoms
	5.1 Boylean Chemistry as Mereological
	5.2 Continuous vs. Contiguous Integral Wholes
	5.3 Integral Parts and Essential Parts
	5.4 Aquinas, Abelard, and Boyle on Substantial Unity
	5.5 The Mereology of Boyle’s Chymical Atoms as Chemically Elementary Entities
	5.6 A Brief Excursion into the Mereology of Epicurean Semantics
Conclusion 
Bibliography
Index