Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle is considered both the founder of modern chemistry. He was not only a chemist and a physicist as we know him to be, but also an avid theologian, a philanthropist, an essayist, and a beginner in medicine. Born in Lismore, Ireland to Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, and Katherine Fenton, his second wife, Boyle was the youngest son in a family of fourteen. However he was not shortchanged of anything. After private tutoring at home for eight years, Robert Boyle was sent to Eton College where he studied for four years. At the age of twelve, Boyle traveled to the Continent, as it was referred to at the time. There he found a private tutor by the name of Marcombes ...
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to Oxford where he joined such scientists as John Wilkins and John Wallis, and together in 1660, they founded the Royal Society of London for the Advancement of Science. From this point onwards, Boyle seriously undertook the reformation of science. For centuries scientists had been explaining the unknown with the simple explanation that god made it that way. Though Boyle did not argue with this, he did believe that there was a scientific explanation for god's doings. Boyle's point of view can be seen by his dealings with the elements. At this time it was thought that an element was not only the simplest body to which something could be broken down, but also a necessary component of all bodies. Meaning that if oil was an element, it would not be able to be broken down, and it would be found in everything. Boyle did not accept this theory, whether it referred to the earth, air, fire, and water of the Aristotelians, the salt, sulfur, and mercury of the Paracelsans, or the phlegm, oil, ...
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"Robert Boyle." Essayworld.com. June 7, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Robert-Boyle/99604.
"Robert Boyle." Essayworld.com. June 7, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Robert-Boyle/99604.
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