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Summary of the introduction
 Its not possible to think about Vitalism without first thinking about
our Philosophical view of how the world worked and how that
influenced our approach to such understanding. Thus its easy to
imagine that if everything is the work of outside Gods etc there is no
point unnecessarily trying or being able to understand it.
 Furthermore if we can’t ‘measure’ the world how can we do other
than speculate on what the world is, or its elements or processes?
 Furthermore if we don't believe that measuring can tell us anything,
why would we measure anything?
 These are the sorts of conundra, or muddled, or detached thinking
that opens the door to delusion and makes the real world
unapproachable
 Therefore my cursory overview of how we understood the world,
how this changed, how making observations is the groundwork of
suspecting order and how the suspicion of order encourages
measurement and how the presence of order leads to speculation as
to forces involved and that indeed forces or mechanisms are
involved etc...
 These are all subtle shifts in our thinking with different degrees of
passivity in engagement with the workings of the world
 Nevertheless even in the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific
revolution there were still insoluble problems and no-go areas where
we retained our ability to impart mystical distinctions between life
and non-life. It is in that situation that Vitalism emerged and
retained its position for some centuries
 So let’s continue the history of 17th and 18th century science
towards the separate emergence (or preservation) of Vitalism
 A quick aside on the importance of technology
 Even without trying to solve grand problems
improvements in mechanical skills, alloy development,
furnaces, glass grinding, time measurement, sextants etc
.... other suggestions...
 Opens the door to informing our view of the world
The Scientific revolution
 Considered by some to begin with Copernicus ‘on the
revolutions of the heavenly spheres’ in 1543
 Consolidated by Newton in the ‘Principia’ – laws of
motion and Universal gravitation 1687
 Perhaps we should pause to consider the profound effect
such an absolute change in the real world view would
have in terms of a stimulus to research, to question.........
 Surely all bets were on if our view of the Cosmos
changed so dramatically from one centred on the earth
to one in which the Earth was but one of a number of
planets circling the Sun
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 The ‘Scientific Method’ and inductive (experimental)
reasoning rather than Platonic deductive (syllogistic – “if it
makes sense it must be so”) reasoning, as championed by
Francis Bacon (1620) – a key underpinning to the thinking
and the explosion in discovery of the 17th and 18th centuries
 Also extended and formalized by Rene Descartes (1637)
17th Century advances
 Universal gravitation (1687)!
 Heliocentrism
 Human anatomy Vesalius (1543!)
 This must have made for an explosive and feverish
time in interacting with the world
Vesalius – ‘human anatomy’
 Detailed functional interrelational three-
dimensional anatomy – not just structural and
musculature but also visceral, valves, sphincters etc
 Championed the importance of dissection
17th Century advances
 Universal gravitation (1687)!
 Heliocentrism
 Human anatomy Vesalius (1543!)
 The function of the heart and Blood flow
(William Harvey – 1628)
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William Harvey – blood flow and pulse
 Detailed analysis of the heart – showed inter-
dependent beating of the left (pushing blood in the
arteries) and right ventricles (pushing blood into
the pulmonary artery)
 Also blood circulation through veins and arteries
Robert Boyle
 Built on the tradition of mineral extractors such as the German Georgius
Agricula (the ‘father of mineralogy’) who formalized the study of ores and
their extraction in the 16th century
 Mining and the extraction of metals such as tin, lead, gold etc obviously had
been very important commercially and for infrastructure for thousands of
years
 Boyle’s major contribution was to formalize Chemistry as distinct from
Alchemy in his book the Sceptical Chymist
 First a few words on Alchemy
17th Century advances
Universal gravitation (1687)!
Heliocentrism
Human anatomy Vesalius (1543!)
The function of the heart and Blood flow (William
Harvey – 1628)
 Robert Boyle – separation of Alchemy from
Chemistry (1661 – the Sceptical Chymist)
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Alchemy
 Worth a few words as it contributes so much to
the clouded thinking that allowed Vitalism
 Alchemy not alone aimed to convert base metals into gold, silver, etc. It also
included a search for elixirs for eternal youth, cures and wisdom. The
mythical ‘Philosopher’s stone’ could achieve all of these goals
 Alchemy existed in various forms from earliest times in numerous cultures,
Epyptian, Greek, Indian, Muslim, Chinese and medieval European
 Easy to see how such searches could arise from ignorance of the forces
underlying the world ... or life
 Can also see how it offered a way of interacting with an incomprehensible
world – could almost consider it as equivalent to religious tenets and
therefore deeply ingrained
 Therefore understandable how even as some of the bases for these searches
were revealed to be untenable we could retain some of these aspirations –
particularly the biological, the most unapproachable
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Robert Boyle
Boyle was an alchemist by
desire, but he did
acknowledge the existence
of elements, mixtures and
compounds. He did
formalize much of the
actual Chemistry of his
time – and separated
Chemistry from Alchemy
17th Century advances
Universal gravitation (1687)!
Heliocentrism
Human anatomy Vesalius (1543!)
The function of the heart and Blood flow (William Harvey – 1628)
Robert Boyle – separation of Alchemy from Chemistry (1661 – the Sceptical Chymist)
Light/Optics – refraction and light spectra (Telescopes; Kepler, Newton, etc)
Light microscopy – Robert Hooke – the cell - Leeuwenhoek
Electricity and Magnetism – first electrical generators (William Gilbert – coined the
term ‘electricus’ from the Greek ‘electron’ meaning Amber - which had electrical
properties – also Boyle, others)
 Pressure and vacuums
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17th Century advances
 All of the scientific and technological advances in
Europe of the 17th century created an atmosphere
where the world could be approached scientifically.
Rigour and the scientific method grew. [The Royal
Society was founded in 1660; a "College for the
Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental
Learning", which would meet weekly to discuss
science and run experiments.]
(Gutenburg press ca. 1440 – also a key technological roadblock overcome..
Allowed more facile exchange of information)
18th century science
 Huge advancements in the practice of medicine,
mathematics, and physics; the development of
biological taxonomy; a new understanding of
magnetism and electricity; and the maturation of
chemistry as a discipline, leading to the foundations
of modern chemistry
 Nevertheless, although the term ‘cell’ had been coined by Hooke, the
contrast in the level of understanding between the physicochemical
sciences and life processes was striking
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18th Century developments
Marked by the profusion in scientific academies – about 70 by the end of the 18th C. –
both national ... E.g. Swedish Academy, British (Royal Society) French (National
Academy) Russian (Soc. Of St. Petersburg) etc and provincial – in cities such as
Bologna, Berlin, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Uppsala.
 Also a profusion of scientific periodicals – opens to door to criticism and peer review
and expansion of knowledge
 Also a profusion of Scientific encyclopaedias and technical dictionaries – the most
famous being Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou
dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. The work, which began
publication in 1751, was composed of thirty-five volumes and over 71 000 separate
entries. A great number of the entries were dedicated to describing the sciences and
crafts in detail.
 Their goals.... ‘ to set forth as well as possible the order and connection of the parts of
human knowledge’ These publications underline the sense that all knowledge can be
assembled and can be propagated and expanded upon and demystified
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Some other 18th century Scientific heroes
 Halley, Herschel - Uranus
 Lavoisier
 Linnaeus
 Diderot – encyclopaedias, etc
 Expand this page just to see the organization
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Lavoisier
Lavoisier (1743-1794) – the father of modern Chemistry (Actually guillotined for his
activities on behalf of the government – a victim of Robespierre’s reign of terror)
Credited with changing Chemistry from a qualitative to a quantitative science –
obviously the key to mechanism – book-keeping and equation balancing
Mass was maintained during reactions ‘Conservation of mass’. Made possible by
accurate balances, sealed pieces of apparatus etc
Showed that there were two types of ‘air’ respiratory and respired – viz. Oxygen and
Carbon Dioxide. He proposed that in respiration oxygen was consumed to generate
heat and carbon dioxide – by measuring heat generated by a guinea pig breathing in a
highly calibrated respiratory device
He discoveed Oxygen (1783) and assembled the first ‘Periodic table of the elements’
Binomial description of compounds – inspired by Linnaeus’ binomial taxonomic
system
E.g. Burned lead (Lead oxide) was of the genus Oxide and species Lead
 We might speculate about the confusing
contribution to living processes made by the
Phlogiston theory
Debunking the Phlogiston theory
 Phlogiston is a substance contained by combustible substances which is
released by burning. In fact oxygen is consumed in the burning process.
Without oxygen there is no burning
 There would also be the prediction that when metals burned they should
lose weight but in fact they gained weight. By being able to weigh air
accurately it could be shown that there was no change in overall weight upon
burning metal – the mass of air went down but the mass of the metal oxides
increased – balancing exactly the loss in oxygen. So the mysterious principle
was solved simply by oxygen – and incredible convolutions were needed to
account for many processes without this very simple solution
Linnaeus (1707-1778)
 ‘Species Plantarum’ the first systematic list of
7700 plant species, establishing their
relationships and formalizing the strategy for
assigning families
 He travelled extensively in Europe to promote
his system which became widely accepted
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