Comparing Boyle's Leviathan And The Air Pump

Shapin and Schaffer outline the rivalry between Hobbes and Boyle in the seventeenth century in a detailed unbiased account of each side in “Leviathan and the Air pump”. Although it is easy to get caught up in the science and facts of what is being disputed, Shapin and Schaffer demonstrate that there is a larger idea of the social and political influence of their dipute and behind each argument. Robert Boyle sought to move away from alchemy and wanted to persuade philosophers that experiments and the use of scientific machines would further develop scientific knowledge, he did this through four main principles of his model of experimental life. The conflict surrounded the validity of the experimental approach to natural philosophy that Boyle

Shapin and Schaffer reveal that through analysis of each factor, the study of science is constantly influenced by social and political factors and that the scientific method is socially constructed. Boyle’s first principle was the need to establish matters of fact; this was done through experience and was knowledge that could be quantified. The importance of this is that it marked a corner stone, and to be engaging in any type of new discovery rested on the fact that we are building upon a solid base. Boyle stated “If one wanted to produce authenticated experimental knowledge –maters of fact—one had to come to this space and to work in it with others”. This reveals the way in which scientific knowledge was socially constructed, as this limited who could view the experiment, and who was deemed trustworthy as a witness. The laboratory’s that were used to conduct these experiments limited who and what types of people were privy to experience Boyle’s air pump. Hobbes uses this as part of his attack on Boyle’s experimental life, in arguing that he and the Royal Society were making natural philosophy a private space and created boundaries. The boundaries between private and public were apart of the means to which the Royal Society would gain power as an independent group of men and lead the State into dissent as opposition occurred in

The material technology was the physical operation of the air pump. Literary technologies were Boyle’s second major principle of his experimental life and were vital in establishing matters of fact. Shapin and Schaffer explain “In Boyle’s view the capacity of experiments to yield maters of fact depended not only upon their actual performance but essentially upon the assurance of the relevant community that they had been so performed”. Boyle and the Royal Society had to convince the community of the validity of the experiment and if they believed Boyle then it could be considered matter of fact and therefore truthful. Literary technologies worked to create and maintain social solidarity among philosophers, which was important as the monarchy was being restored as the sole authority. This furthers Hobbes’s goal to protect the State from any dissent in the country as a sign of opposition in natural philosophy could lead to opposition elsewhere. The fear of this was present because of the events that lead to the exile of the previous monarchy by a mass of men who abused their power in the military. Shapin and Schaffer explain that Boyle believed “it was proper to speak confidently of matters of fact because they were not of one’s own making: they were, in the empiricist language-game, discovered rather than invented”. Natural philosophies are directly related to social and political