Boyle, Robert

« Torricelli and his own conception of the spring (elasticity) of the air.

His work was seen by many as a significant improvement upon earlier Aristotelian speculations, yet it was also severely criticized, by Henry More and Thomas Hobbes among others.

In 1662 he published responses to his critics in a second edition of New Experiments that also contained the first formulation of Boyle's law, which describes the inverse proportion between the pressure and volume of a gas. Boyle's interests were broad and eclectic and his inherited wealth provided him with the leisure to pursue many areas of study.

During his lifetime he published over forty works ranging from comprehensive experimental histories to defences of the Christian religion and the new corpuscular philosophy.

In one of his last books, The Christian Virtuoso (1690 ), he explained that such eclecticism was warranted because ‘ true philosophy' is 'of greater extent, than the hypothesis of any one sect of philosophers, being indeed a comprehension of all the sciences, arts, disciplines, and other considerable parts of useful knowledge '. 2 Experimental philosophy Boyle first became acquainted with the Baconian concept of useful knowledge through his association with the Hartlib group in London, and his own laboratory investigations, particularly in chemistry, increased his conviction that experimental practices would be required to improve upon what he perceived to be the 'barrenness' of the natural philosophy taught in the schools.

He agreed with Bacon that the Aristotelian distinction between natural and artificial processes was not tenable and that the experimental manipulation of natural bodies could yield more than immediate utilitarian benefits (see Bacon, F. ).

As Boyle explained in his Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy (1670 ), the production of effects under the controlled conditions of a laboratory may 'either hint to us the causes of them, or at least acquaint us with some of the properties or qualities of things concurring to the production of such effects' . Although he designed his experimental method as a way by which to learn about the causal processes operative in nature, he opposed what he found to be the premature theoretical systems of many of his contemporaries.

In The Sceptical Chymist (1661 ), for example, he produced experimental refutations of the prevalent Aristotelian and alchemical theories of elements, but he offered no theoretical account of his own with which to replace them (see Alchemy ; Natural philosophy, medieval §1 ).

In other works where he did speculate about the causal powers of bodies, his discussions were tentative and hesitant.

Boyle's caution was in part a result of the many practical problems that he encountered in his laboratory.

His reflection upon the epistemological significance of these 'contingencies of experiment' led him to write one of the earliest and most complete accounts of the systematic errors associated with experimental practice. In his Certain Physiological Essays (1661 ), Boyle discussed how the use of impure ingredients, imperfect instruments or inappropriate techniques could lead to experimental failure.

To mitigate the effects of systematic. »