Retracing the Ancient Steps to Atomic Theory

Science and Education

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 69-84

  Chalmers, Alan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 54649083219     PISSN: 09267220     EISSN: 15731901     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1008683332723     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Sotirios A., Sakkopoulos & Evagelos G. Vikoratus. 'Empirical Foundations of Atomism in Ancient Greek Philosophy', Science and Education 5, 1996, 293-303, quotation on p. 293.
2. A. Chalmers, 'Did Democritus Ascribe Weight to Atoms?", forthcoming in Australasian Juinmil of Philosophy.
3. 'About the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Philosophy' in Thomas Birch (ed.), The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Millar, London, 1744, Vol. 3, pp. 450-457; reprinted in M.A. Stewart (ed.), Seieaed Philosophical Papers of Roben Boyte, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1979, pp. 138-154. Hereafter 1 refer to the first of these collections as Works and the second as Philosophical Papers.
4. Boyle only occasionally used the term 'atom'. However, his fundamental corpuscles, that he usually referred to as prima nauiralia or minima nauiraha were atoms insofar as they were the ultimate and unchangeable constituents of the material world, and I will refer to them as atoms.
5. Selected Philosophical Papers, p. 141.
6. Ibid., p. 126, italics in original.
7. Ibid., p. 139, italics in original.
8. See, for instance, his criticism of 'dark and intricate doctrines' in ibid., p. 139.
9. Ibid., p. 140, italics in original.
10. S. Shapini 1994, A Social History of Truth, Chicago University Press, Chicago, p.334.
11. Works, Vol. 1, p. 450; Selected Philosophical Papers, pp. 169-170.
12. Boyle's celebrated, but in my view flawed, appeal to analogies between the macro and the micro-world appears in Selected Philosophical Papers, pp 143-144. I have criticised it in some detail in my The Lack of Excellency of Boyle's Mechanical Philosophy', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 1993, Vol. 24, pp. 541-64, section 4.
13. Works, Vol. 1, p. 198
14. Selected Philiimphical Papers, p. 156.
15. Works, Vol. 1, p. 198.
16. Works, Vol. 1, pp. 191ff.
17. Royal Society Boyle Papers, viii, f 184, reel 5, frame 189. I have consulted the microfilm version of Boyle's papers, published as Collections, From the Royal Society: Letters and Papers of Roben Boyle, University Publications of America, Bethesda, Maryland, 1990, and have included the reel and frame numbers in my references.
18. Works, Vol. 1, p. 198.
19. RSBP, viii, f 184, reel 5, frame 189, underlined in original.
20. Works, Vol. 1, p.199.
21. RSBP, Vol. ix, f 40-4-1, reel 5, frame 250.
22. Works, Vol. 1, p. 198.
23. RSBP, Vol. viii, f 184, reel 5, frame 189.
24. Works, Vol. 1, 198-199, my italics.
25. S. Shapin and S. Schaffer: 1985, Leviathan and the Air Pump, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, hor an account ot Boyle's dispute with Spinoza, as well as an account of Boyle's chemistry generally that adds support to my case sec A. Clericuzio: 1990, 'A Redefinition of Boyle's Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy', Annals of Science 47, 561-589.
26. I. Newton: 1979, Opticks, Dover, New York, pp. 401-402.
27. F. Cajori: 1962, Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and his System of the World, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, Vol. 2, p. 399.
28. A. Thackray: 1970, Atoms and Powers, Oxford University Press, London.
29. T.E. Thorpe: 1902, Essays in Historical Chemistry, Macmillan, London, p. 535.
30. As quoted in op. cit., note 28, p. 275.
31. S. Cannizzaro, Sketch of a Course in Chemical Philosophy', Alembic Club Repiiiit Number 18, London, 1910, first published in II Nuovo Cimenta 1, 1858, 321-366.
32. T. Thomson: 1825, An Attempt to Establish the First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment, 2 vols, Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, London, Vol. 1, p.iii.
33. John Nyoff: 1988, 'Philosophical Objections to the Kinetic Theory', British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 39, 81-109. Also van Melson (1960).
34. For the classic account of the attempts to determine Avogadro's number see Jean Perrin: 1990, Arnmx, Ox Bow Press, Woodhridge, Connecticut.
35. Op. cit., note 1, p. 293.