The rise of cryptographic metaphors in Boyle and their use for the mechanical philosophy |
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Authors: | Dana Matthiessen |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, United Kingdom;2. Faculty of Science & Centre for Science and Culture, Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Friedrich-Streib-Str. 2, 96450 Coburg, Germany |
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Abstract: | This paper tracks the development of Boyle's conception of the natural world in terms of the popular “book of nature” trope. Boyle initially spoke of the creatures and phenomena of nature in a spiritual and moral register, as emblems of divine purpose, but gradually shifted from this ideographic view to an alphabetical account, which at times became posed in explicitly cryptographic terms. I explain this transition toward cryptographic metaphors in terms of Boyle's social and intellectual milieu and their concordance with the reductive and conjectural character of the mechanical philosophical program. |
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Keywords: | Robert Boyle Royal society Mechanical philosophy Hypothetical method Cryptography |
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