This book presents a new view of Robert Boyle (1627-91), the leading British scientist in the generation before Newton, bringing out the subtlety of his ideas and the complexity of his relationship with his context.

List of abbreviations; Preface; 1. Introduction Michael Hunter; 2. Virtue, providence and political neutralism: Boyle and interregnum politics Malcolm Oster; 3. Science writing and writing science: Boyle and rhetorical theory John T. Harwood; 4. Learning from experience: Boyle's construction of an experimental philosophy Rose-Mary Sargent; 5. Carneades and the chemists: a study of The Sceptical Chymist and its impact on seventeenth-century chemistry Antonio Clericuzio; 6. Boyle's alchemical pursuits Lawrence M. Principe; 7. Boyle's debt to corpuscular alchemy William R. Newman; 8. Boyle and cosmical qualities John Henry; 9. The theological context of Boyle's Things above Reason Jan W. Wojcik; 10. 'Parcere nominibus': Boyle, Hooke and the rhetorical interpretation of Descartes Edward B. Davis; 11. Teleological reasoning in Boyle's Disquisition about Final Causes Timothy Shanahan; 12. Locke and Boyle on miracles and God's existence J. J. Macintosh; Bibliography of writings on Boyle published since 1940; Index.