Boyle : between God and science
Title:
Boyle : between God and science
Author:
Hunter, Michael
ISBN:
9780300123814
Publication Information:
New Haven [etc.] : Yale University Press, 2009
Physical Description:
xii, 366 p. : ill. ; 25 cm
General Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
Contents:
Introduction -- 1. Boyle's birth, background and family, 1627-1635 -- 2. Eton, Stalbridge and Boyle's patrimony, 1635-1639 -- 3. The Grand Tour, 1639-1644 -- 4. The Moralist, 1645-1649 -- 5. The turning point, 1649-1652 -- 6. Ireland and Oxford, 1652-1658 -- 7. The evolution of Boyle's programme, c.1655-1658 -- 8. The public arena, 1659-1663 -- 9. The royal society, 1664-1668 -- 10. The early London years, 1668-1676 -- 11. The arcane and the luminous, 1676-c.1680 -- 12. Evangelism, apologetics and casuitry, c.1680-1683 -- 13. Medicine and projecting, 1683-1687 -- 14. Preparing for death, 1688-1691 -- 15. Boyle's legacy.
Abstract:
Robert Boyle ranks with Newton and Einstein as one of the world’s most important scientists. Aristocrat and natural philosopher, he was a remarkably wide-ranging and penetrating thinker - pioneering the modern experimental method, championing a novel mechanical view of nature, and reflecting deeply on philosophical and theological issues related to science. But, as Michael Hunter shows, Boyle was also a complex and contradictory personality, fascinated by alchemy and magic and privately plagued with doubts about faith and conscience, which troubled the rational vision he heralded. This extraordinary work is the first biography of Boyle in a generation, and the culminating achievement of a world-renowned expert on the scientist. Deftly navigating Boyle's voluminous published works as well as his personal letters and papers, Hunter's complete and intimate account gives us the man rather than the myth, the troubled introvert as well as the public campaigner. Lively, perceptive, and full of original insights, this is the definitive account of a remarkable man and the changing world in which he lived.
Subject:
| Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691 |
| Scientists -- Ireland -- Biography |
| Chemists -- Ireland -- Biography |
| Religion and science |
| Science -- England -- History -- 17th century |
Summary:
Robert Boyle ranks with Newton and Einstein as one of the world’s most important scientists. Aristocrat and natural philosopher, he was a remarkably wide-ranging and penetrating thinker - pioneering the modern experimental method, championing a novel mechanical view of nature, and reflecting deeply on philosophical and theological issues related to science. But, as Michael Hunter shows, Boyle was also a complex and contradictory personality, fascinated by alchemy and magic and privately plagued with doubts about faith and conscience, which troubled the rational vision he heralded. This extraordinary work is the first biography of Boyle in a generation, and the culminating achievement of a world-renowned expert on the scientist. Deftly navigating Boyle's voluminous published works as well as his personal letters and papers, Hunter's complete and intimate account gives us the man rather than the myth, the troubled introvert as well as the public campaigner. Lively, perceptive, and full of original insights, this is the definitive account of a remarkable man and the changing world in which he lived.