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6 - The Grand Business of Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2023

Mónica García-Salmones Rovira
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Summary

The natural philosopher Robert Boyle, mentor of John Locke, took the view that the aim of science was ‘the Empire over the Creatures’. The task of Chapter 6 is to show how Robert Boyle’s new political system for an economics of natural science, primarily involving the utilitarian exploitation of nature and of trade, connected with his contribution to the development of a form of natural law and natural philosophy shorn of moral natural law. That idea drew on classical theological teachings on dominion over creatures (as set out in Genesis 1:26) together with the economic goal of making natural sciences productive – also considering the significant expansion that the British Empire was undergoing at that point in time. Theological principles about an omnipotent and bountiful God were crucial to Boyle’s plans for the achievement of broader management of nature, but as a rule he avoided consideration of anthropological theology and moral natural law in his scientific writings. A close reading of Of the Usefulness of Experimentall Natural Philosophy and of the Aretology helps in articulating these ideas.

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Chapter
Information
The Necessity of Nature
God, Science and Money in 17th Century English Law of Nature
, pp. 163 - 204
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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