The limits of matter : chemistry, mining, and enlightenment PDF
Preview The limits of matter : chemistry, mining, and enlightenment
The Limits of Matter A series in the history of chemistry, broadly construed, edited by Angela N. H. Creager, Ann Johnson, John E. Lesch, Lawrence M. Principe, Alan Rocke, E. C. Spary, and Audra J. Wolfe, in partnership with the Chemical Heritage Founda- tion The Limits of Matter Chemistry, Mining, and Enlightenment Hjalmar Fors The University of Chicago Press :: Chicago and London Hjalmar Fors is a researcher and teacher in the Department of History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, Sweden. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2015 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2015. Printed in the United States of America 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5 isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 19499- 8 (cloth) isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 19504- 9 (e- book) doi: 10.7208/chicago/978022619504– 9.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Fors, Hjalmar, author. The limits of matter : chemistry, mining, and Enlightenment / Hjalmar Fors. pages cm — (Synthesis) isbn 978-0 -2 26-1 9499- 8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978- 0- 226- 19504- 9 (e- book) 1. Matter—Philosophy. 2. Chemistry—History. 3. Mining engineering—History. 4. Enlightenment. I. Title. II. Series: Synthesis (University of Chicago Press) bd646.f67 2015 117—dc23 2014017926 o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper). To Karin, Hedda, and Beata . . . I heard footsteps behind me And there was a little old man — Hello! In scarlet and grey, shuffling away — (laughter!) . . . — Oh, I ought to report you to the Gnome office — Gnome Office? — Yes — Hahahahaha! . . . Ha ha ha, hee hee hee I’m a laughing Gnome and you can’t catch me Said the laughing Gnome david bowie, “The Laughing Gnome” (1967) Contents 1 Introduction: The Edges of the Map 1 2 Of Witches, Trolls, and Inquisitive Men 17 3 Chymists in the Mining Business 43 4 From Curious to Ingenious Knowledge 77 5 Elements of Enlightenment 99 6 Capturing the Laughing Gnome 121 7 Conclusion: Material Reality 147 and the Enlightenment Acknowledgments 155 Notes 157 Bibliography 201 Index 221 1 Introduction: The Edges of the Map Intellectual battles over the nature of reality were fought all over Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centu- ries. They were an integral part of the cultural shift that is usually referred to as the Enlightenment. At the heart of the matter lay a massive change in Western epistemol- ogy. The people of this period raised many questions, and found their answers to be different from those that had satisfied their forebears.1 What are the limits of attain- able knowledge? How should we proceed to understand the universe? What kinds of entities and forces may our world contain? The issues were not just philosophical. Debates raged in many arenas. There was the juridical question of whether the law should continue to punish witches who performed malevolent magic. There was the theological question of whether God still worked miracles in the modern world, and whether God and the Devil were aided in their work by legions of angels and demons. And what about the soul? Was it a spark of the divine or simply an innate ability to reason rationally? The de- bate also raged in physics, natural history, and alchemy/ chemistry. How should physics explain phenomena such as action at a distance and telepathic communication of thoughts and emotions? How should natural historians discuss the various beasts— dragons, trolls, gnomes, and the like— that could not be killed, preserved, and dis-
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