Gold and the atomic theories of the seventeenth century

Abstract

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century there was a growing feeling that the way to gain an understanding of nature was not to consult the ancient authorities but to turn to the world of experience. An increasing concern with observational evidence led to attempts to modify experience in some way to gain greater knowledge. This modification of experience led to the development of the experimental method. Aristotle's considerable influence in western civilisation opposed the idea of matter consisting of atoms but in the early seventeenth century his influence was declining. In this Galileo played no small part. Yet even before Galileo, scholars were looking again at the old texts and rediscovering the ancient atomists. The idea of matter consisting of corpuscles was to be an immensely fruitful concept in seventeenth century natural philosophy but before the idea could be taken seriously it had to overcome various objections. Two quite different barriers to acceptance were religious and experimental. The French priest Pierre Gassendi had to show his contemporaries that, although atomism had been part of the doctrine of the atheist Lucretius, a belief in atoms in no way implied the undermining of Christianity. The second obstacle was more per-