Matter And Method In The Long Chemical Revolution: Laws Of Another Order (science, Technology And Culture, 1700-1945)
by Victor D. Boantza /
2016 / English / PDF
3.4 MB Download
The seventeenth-century scientific revolution and the
eighteenth-century chemical revolution are rarely considered
together, either in general histories of science or in more
specific surveys of early modern science or chemistry. This
tendency arises from the long-held view that the rise of modern
physics and the emergence of modern chemistry comprise two distinct
and unconnected episodes in the history of science. Although
chemistry was deeply transformed during and between both
revolutions, the scientific revolution is traditionally associated
with the physical and mathematical sciences whereas modern
chemistry is seen as the exclusive product of the chemical
revolution. This historiographical tension, between similarity in
’form’ and disparity in historical ’content’ of the two events, has
tainted the way we understand the rise of modern chemistry as an
integral part of the advent of modern science. Against this
background, Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution
examines the role of and effects on chemistry of both revolutions
in parallel, using chemistry during the chemical revolution to
illuminate chemistry during the scientific revolution, and vice
versa. Focusing on the crises and conflicts of early modern
chemistry (and their retrospectively labeled ’losing’ parties), the
author traces patterns of continuity in matter theory and
experimental method from Boyle to Lavoisier, and reevaluates the
disciplinary relationships between chemists, mechanists, and
Newtonians in France, England, and Scotland. Adopting a unique
approach to the study of the scientific and chemical revolutions,
and to early modern chemical thought and practice in particular,
the author challenges the standard revolution-centered history of
early modern science, and reinterprets the rise of chemistry as an
independent discipline in the long eighteenth century.
The seventeenth-century scientific revolution and the
eighteenth-century chemical revolution are rarely considered
together, either in general histories of science or in more
specific surveys of early modern science or chemistry. This
tendency arises from the long-held view that the rise of modern
physics and the emergence of modern chemistry comprise two distinct
and unconnected episodes in the history of science. Although
chemistry was deeply transformed during and between both
revolutions, the scientific revolution is traditionally associated
with the physical and mathematical sciences whereas modern
chemistry is seen as the exclusive product of the chemical
revolution. This historiographical tension, between similarity in
’form’ and disparity in historical ’content’ of the two events, has
tainted the way we understand the rise of modern chemistry as an
integral part of the advent of modern science. Against this
background, Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution
examines the role of and effects on chemistry of both revolutions
in parallel, using chemistry during the chemical revolution to
illuminate chemistry during the scientific revolution, and vice
versa. Focusing on the crises and conflicts of early modern
chemistry (and their retrospectively labeled ’losing’ parties), the
author traces patterns of continuity in matter theory and
experimental method from Boyle to Lavoisier, and reevaluates the
disciplinary relationships between chemists, mechanists, and
Newtonians in France, England, and Scotland. Adopting a unique
approach to the study of the scientific and chemical revolutions,
and to early modern chemical thought and practice in particular,
the author challenges the standard revolution-centered history of
early modern science, and reinterprets the rise of chemistry as an
independent discipline in the long eighteenth century.