Book ID: CBB001420404

Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution: Laws of Another Order (2013)

unapi

Boantza, Victor D. (Author)


Ashgate


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: xiv + 266 pp.; ill.; bibl.; index
Language: English

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.

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Reviewed By

Review Kim, Mi Gyung (2015) Review of "Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution: Laws of Another Order". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 439-440). unapi

Review Powers, John C. (2014) Review of "Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution: Laws of Another Order". Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 208-210). unapi

Review Roberts, Lissa (2014) Review of "Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution: Laws of Another Order". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 190-192). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420404/

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Authors & Contributors
Chalmers, Alan Francis
Newman, William Royall
Banchetti-Robino, Marina Paola
Sacco, Francesco Giuseppe
John A. Stewart
Inglehart, Ashley J.
Concepts
Chemistry
Mechanism; mechanical philosophy
Natural philosophy
Historiography
Philosophy
Matter theory
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
Early modern
16th century
Modern
Enlightenment
Places
England
France
Scotland
Netherlands
Italy
Europe
Institutions
Royal Society of London
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