Chimie et scepticisme : Héritage et ruptures d'une science. Analyse du Chimiste sceptique, 1661, Robert Boyle / Chemistry and skepticism : Heritage and breaks in a science. An examination of Boyle's 1661 Sceptical chemist

Abstract

SUMMARY. — In 1661 Boyle presented a dialogue making use of a skeptical line of reasoning. His purpose thereby was, on the negative side, to criticize Aristotelian and Paracelsian definitions of chemical objects and, on the positive side, to establish a new methodology in chemistry that conformed to the requirements of experimental philosophy, while avoiding a Cartesian-style reduction. To acquire the status of a science, chemistry had to reform its explanatory concepts and its experimental methods, as physics had done at the beginning of the century. In spite of its dubitative style, The Sceptical chymist represents a crucial moment in the history of modern chemistry.