Intention of the work
Shapin and Schaffer state in their first chapter, "Understanding Experiment", that they wish to answer the question, "Why does one do experiments in order to arrive at scientific truth?" Their aim is to use a historical account of the debate over the validity of Boyle's air pump experiments, and by extension hisChapter II: Seeing and Believing: The Experimental Production of Pneumatic Facts
Chapter Two outlines Boyle's theory of knowledge production, which revolves around the creation of the "matter of fact". This refers to an experimentally generated piece of knowledge separate from a universal theory and that was based on probability. This is in direct opposition to Hobbes (discussed in chapter 3), who required "absolute certainty" based on "logic and geometry" to consider a phenomenon a fact. In the eyes of Boyle and his colleagues, the abandonment of absolute certainty was not "a regrettable retreat from more ambitious goals; it was celebrated as a wise rejection of a failed project". Thus, because "matters of fact" did not have to be absolute, universal assent was not necessary for the production of knowledge. Boyle made use of three knowledge-producing technologies in order to produce knowledge: "a ''material technology'' embedded in the construction and operation of the air-pump; a ''literary technology'' by means of which the phenomena produced by the pump were made known to those who were not direct witnesses; and a ''social technology'' that incorporated the conventions that experimental philosophers should use in dealing with each other and considering knowledge-claims". Importantly, Shapin and Schaffer give a description of the "material technology," the air-pump itself, essentially a suction pump attached to a replaceable glass bulb. When the pump was set in motion, the air would be evacuated from the glass bulb thus creating what we now consider to be a vacuum, but what for contemporaries was a space of great debate (explained below). However, the integrity of the pump was far from perfect and this leaking is central to the arguments both for and against experimentalism. Shapin and Schaffer assert that three important points should be taken into account when considering the pump itself: "(1) that both the engine's integrity and its limited leakage were important resources for Boyle in validating his pneumatic finding and their proper interpretation; (2) that the physical integrity of the machine was vital to the perceived integrity of the knowledge the machine helped to produce; and (3) that the lack of its physical integrity was a strategy used by critics, particularly Hobbes, to deconstruct Boyle's claims and to substitute alternative accounts". The arguments about experimentally generated knowledge revolve around two of Boyle's experiments. The first experiment is the Torricellian apparatus placed within the exhausted receiver (the bulb). The result is that the liquid in the inverted tube of the Torricellian apparatus falls, but not to the level of the liquid in the dish at the base of the inverted tube. For Boyle, the water level fell because the air was being evacuated from the bulb and thus its spring and weight were no longer acting on the liquid around the base of the tube holding the liquid in the inverted tube up. The fact that the water did not fall completely to the bottom of the tube was explained (for Boyle) by the existence of air in the bulb that occurred due to leakage. However Boyle was careful not to commit to saying that a vacuum existed in the bulb; he stated only that when air was sucked out of the bulb the level of the liquid in the inverted tube fell - this was the nature of a matter of fact. The second experiment was based on the theory of cohesion - that "two smooth bodies, such as marble or glass discs, can be made spontaneously to cohere when pressed against each other". Boyle's idea was that if two cohered discs were placed in the receiver of the air-pump they would spontaneously separate without the air's pressure to keep them together. However, when the receiver was evacuated, they did not separate - a result which Boyle blamed on leakage and the fact that he could not get enough air out of the receiver to reduce the air's pressure to an appropriate level. It should be noted here that Boyle's definitions of "pressure" and "spring" were never clearly defined, which we shall see is one of Hobbes's major complaints. The air-pump granted access to a whole new branch of "elaborate" experiments. In order to witness the phenomena produced by the pump, one had to have access to a pump - which was vastly expensive and difficult to build. However, the space in which the existing pumps did work was arguably a public space - albeit a restricted one. "The laboratory was, therefore, a disciplined space, where experimental, discursive, and social practices were collectively controlled by competent members". The collective viewing of the air-pump experiments avoided the problem of single eye-witness testimony (which was unreliable), and it offered a space for discourse. This social space for discourse had two important restrictions: "dispute over matters of fact" was not allowed, and "the rules of the game by which maters of fact were experimentally produced" was not to be disputed.Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 60 "In Boyle's view the capacity of experiments to yield matters of fact depended not only upon their actual performance but essentially upon the assurance of the relevant community that they had been so performed".Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 55 In order to expand his audience (and credibility) Boyle recommended to the academic community that replication was crucial, though he admitted that others "Chapter III: Seeing Double: Hobbes's Politics of Plenism before 1660
The third chapter centers on Hobbes' side of the debate for the effective production of knowledge. However, unlike Boyle, Hobbes denies that natural philosophy can be separated from politics and religion. In the previous chapter, Boyle's "matter of fact" worked towards separation from church and state by remaining objective and probabilistic. For Hobbes, however, "the boundaries Boyle proposed to erect and maintain were guarantees of continued disorder, not remedies to philosophical dissension". Hobbes also argued for "proper metaphysical language", in contrast to Boyle's reluctance to address the issue of a vacuum and his vague concept of air "pressure." Hobbes was motivated by three things in his attack on Boyle: (1) to save his own reputation as a natural philosopher, (2) to develop a system of knowledge production that secured order and maintained proper goals for natural philosophy (namely precision instead of probability) and (3) to be sensitive to the needs of Restoration society (discussed in more detail in chapter 7).Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 83 Hobbes' denial of a vacuum stems in part from a need for political stability. It follows logically that if there can be a space which is devoid of matter, then that is proof of "incorporeal substance" - an idea that was adopted by priests to gain the allegiance of the people by promising the safety of this substance, the immortal soul. This splits the allegiance of each person in a country between the Church and the Monarch, which creates social instability and ultimately, for Hobbes, the risk of civil war. He considered incorporeal substance a priestly conspiracy to "usurp power" from the true and legitimate leader - the King. The conflict could be resolved "by collapsing the hierarchy piritual government and material governmentin favour of matter".Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 98 "It was to that end that Leviathan proffered a materialist and monist natural philosophy.". ''Leviathan'' also instructs that the way to produce good theories is through good definition of terms, the use of materialist and monist theory, and the equal importance of ontology and epistemology ("Show men what knowledge is and you will show them the grounds of assent and social order"). Hobbes works from a model of geometry, and the aims of his natural philosophy share the same precision as geometry. That is why, for Hobbes, good definition is extremely important. Hobbes also rejects the idea that the senses were reliable enough to be able to provide factual knowledgeShapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 102 because "the same impressions could be obtained dreaming or waking, by the motions of matter in real external object or by rubbing the eyes". Instead, Hobbes posits that man's own agency is the place for natural philosophy, once again drawing on geometry: "'as we know, that, if the figure shown be a circle, then any straight line through the centre shall divide it into two equal parts.' 'And this,' Hobbes said, 'is the knowledge required in a philosopher.'" Thus, belief played no part in Hobbes' concept of a fact, and this ran in opposition to Boyle because Boyle's "matters of fact" required the consensus of a group of witnesses who all believed the same thing. "Knowledge was constituted when all believed alike. Likewise for Boyle's clerical allies, religion was a matter of belief and giving witness to that belief... obbesstrategy was one of behavioural control, not one of internal moral control. It was not that the control of belief was wrong; it was that such control was impractical and an inadequate surety for order." Artfully, this chapter ends, "For Hobbes, the rejection of vacuum was the elimination of a space within which dissension could take place."Chapter IV: The Trouble with Experiment: Hobbes versus Boyle
As the chapter title suggests, this chapter focuses on how these two historical figures interacted. It starts with a list of Hobbes' criticisms of Boyle:- obbeswas skeptical about the allegedly public and witnessed character of experimental performances, and, therefore, of the capacity to generate consensus, even within the experimental rules of the game.Hobbes criticized Boyle's experimental space for being private (as it was exclusive to everyone but empiricists) and insisted that the space had a "master" - which undermined Boyle's concept of free discourse and consensus to generate matters of fact. Also he criticized the fact that, since the whole experimental community must come into agreement before a "matter of fact" can be produced, the whole experimental community must view the same demonstration at the same time. This was an obvious impossibility and was problematic for Boyle because "If they were not witnessed simultaneously and together, then in what ways was the evaluation of experimental testimony different from the evaluation of testimony generally?" Hobbes also criticized the air-pump itself, saying that "the physical integrity of the machine was massively violated." He asserted that "it was impossible to understand the air-pump experiments 'unless the nature of the air is known first.'"Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 117 This was important for three reasons: (1) because Hobbes said the fluidity of the air ruled out the ability to produce an impermeable seal (2) because describing the air as mixture allowed Hobbes to explain the pumps actions (drawing out the course aspects of the air and leaving behind the more subtle fluid) and (3) because Hobbes said that, since Boyle could not offer a cause for the spring of the air, that made him an inadequate natural philosopher. Indeed, it was Boyle's recommendation to ignore causes that Hobbes found intolerable. It was not an objection to the empirical method. Hobbes only ever doubted the senses as a reliable source of information. He makes an example of the motion of a person's blood, "for no one feels the motion of their blood unless it pours forth,"Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 127 as proof of the unreliability of the senses. Yet he did not object to Harvey's work to prove the motion of the blood - rather he even considered himself a "methodological ally" of Harvey's "both denying the foundational nature and of personal experience." "Thus for Hobbes, the task of the natural philosopher was to approach as near as he could to the products of the geometer and the civic philosopher" while "Boyle's compulsion was only partial; there was room to differ and tolerance was essential to the maintenance of this partial and liberal compulsion. Managed dissent within the moral community of experimentalists was safe. Uncontrollable divisiveness and civil war followed from any other course."
- He regarded the experimental programme as otiose. It was pointless to perform a systematic series of experiments, for if one could, in fact, discern causes from natural effects, then a single experiment should suffice.
- He denied the status of "philosophy" to the outcome of the experimental programme. "Philosophy", for Hobbes, was the practice of demonstrating how effects followed from causes, or of inferring causes from effects. The experimental programme failed to satisfy this definition.
- He systematically refused to credit experimentalists' claims that one could establish a procedural boundary between observing the positive regularities produced by experiment (facts) and identifying the physical cause that accounts for them (theories).
- He persistently treated experimentalists' "hypotheses" and "conjectures" as statements about real causes.
- He contended that, whatever hypothetical cause or state of nature Boyle adduced to explain his experimentally produced phenomena, an alternative and superior explanation could be proffered and was, in fact, already available. In particular, Hobbes stipulated that Boyle's explanations invoked vacuism. Hobbes's alternatives proceed from plenism.
- He asserted the inherently defeasible character of experimental systems and therefore the knowledge experimental practices produced.
Chapter V: Boyle's Adversaries: Experiment Defended
While the previous chapter focuses on the attacks of Boyle's main opponent (Hobbes), this chapter focuses on Boyle's actions in the face of more general adversity. The three main opponents to Boyle were Hobbes, Linus and More, and Boyle's response to each in turn reflects his opinion of their ideas and shows what parts of his own ideas he deemed essential and what parts he deemed less so. The figures can be divided into two groups: Linus - who conformed to the model of the experimental programme but did not agree with Boyle's explanation of the air-pump experiments, and Hobbes and More - who attacked the experimental programme as an institution. "Linus said there was no vacuum in the Torricellian space. This was apparent because one could see through that space; if there were a vacuum, 'no visible species could proceed either from it, or through it, unto the eye."Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 157 Linus offered a nonmechanical solution to the sustained height of the liquid in the Torricellian apparatus. He suggested that "a certain internal thread (funiculus) whose upper extremity was attached to the finger locking the top of the inverted tubeand whose lower extremity was attached to the surface of the mercury." He also explained that, in the marble disc experiment, the fault was not with the air-pump but rather with Boyle's theory of the spring of the air. Thus, as far as experimental procedure was concerned, Linus was following the rules. So how would Boyle respond? While Boyle's response contained a restatement of the rules of experimentation, a restatement of the boundaries of experimental philosophy, a defense of his mechanical interpretation, and a particular defense of the spring of the air, Boyle took great pains to "make clear that he generally approved of Linus's manner of constructing and delivering his criticisms." Linus was fully welcomed into the experimental community despite his difference of opinion. Thus, "in his ''Defense'' Boyle would therefore demonstrate not merely that Linus was wrong, but also how experimental controversies ought to be conducted." In his ''Defense'', Boyle restated that "he could not understand why Linus, like Hobbes, had attacked him as a vacuist when he had explicitly declared his nescience on the matter and had identified the question as metaphysical in character" and thus out of the range of experimental exploration. Hobbes on the other hand attacked the validity of the experimental programme itself. "Boyle's response to Hobbes was fundamentally a defense of the integrity and value of experimental practices." Boyle's reply included a technical response detailing the changes he had made to the pump (immersing it in water), a reiteration of the rules of experimental discourse, "an experimental programme devoted to clearing up the troubles which Hobbes had pointed to in his comments on New Experiments," and an ideological rejection of Hobbes's natural philosophy. In his reiteration of the rules of experimental discourse he defended his empirical method by asserting that the argument was over the interpretation of matters of fact and not the facts themselves, thus keeping the experimental way of life out of the line of fire. In response to Hobbes's criticism that the air had a subtler part that permeated the pump, Boyle stated that "this aether must either be demonstrated by experiment to exist or it was to be regarded as a metaphysical entity", which Boyle has excluded from the scope of the experimental method. Henry More had three main arguments in relation to Boyle: "(1) that matter itself was passive, inert and stupid; (2) that its motion was guided by 'some Immaterial Being that exercises its directive Activity on the Matter of the World'; (3) that mechanism alone was an inadequate way of accounting for Boyle's phenomena." He insisted that natural philosophy could be used "as weaponin theology" which we have seen is an area that Boyle wished to keep separate from the experimental method. Thus, in response, Boyle "defended the autonomy and status of his xperimentalcommunity" as separate from other social bodies (such as the Church) and wrote "of 'the doctor's grand and laudable design, wherein eheartily wish dhim much success of proving the existence of an incorporeal substance.'"Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 217 "Boyle argued that because More's spirit was not a physical principle it could not be part of the language of organized experimenters." Thus, from this chapter we see that above all Boyle wished to defend his experimental method, its separation from other bodies of knowledge, and lastly his personal claims about the spring of the air.Chapter VI: Replication and Its Troubles: Air-Pumps in the 1660s
Chapter 6 is an evaluation of the technologies stated in chapter 2 and their role in replication - namely replication of the material technology and the utility of virtual witnessing. The chapter focuses on the propagation of the pump via the experimental community. The air-pump was first developed in Oxford and London with the help of the Royal Society (and in response to Hobbes criticism) beginning in 1659. It was during its development that Robert Moray wrote to Christiaan Huygens (Holland) detailing the changes Boyle would be making to the original design of his pump. Huygens rejected Boyle's changes and set about making his own alterations. "Christiaan Huygens was the only natural philosopher in the 1660s who built an air-pump that was outside the direct management of Boyle and Hooke." At the end of Huygens development, Huygens claimed that "my pneumatic pump was begun to work since yesterday, and all that night a bladder stayed inflated within it hich was a test for the goodness of a pump..which Mr. Boyle was not able to effect." Indeed, he discovered a phenomenon called anomalous suspension (the suspension of water in a Toricellian apparatus when the water was purged of air, but when a bubble was introduced the water fell) "whose outcome measured the excellence of any air-pump... ndto interpret this calibration phenomenon, Huygens had summoned into existence a new fluid and challenged the sufficiency of the weight and spring of common air. The effect of this fluid was only visible in good pumps." However, "for more than eighteen months neither of Huygens' claims were granted the status of matters of fact" and it is in this time period that we see how the troubles of replication were dealt with by contemporaries. The dispute resulted in a flurry of letters between Boyle and Huygens, each attacking the integrity of the other's machine (and by extension the theories of their makers). "So in March and April 1663 it became clear that unless the phenomenon could be produced in England with one of the two pumps available, then no one in England would accept the claims Huygens had made, or his competence in working the pump" - full and complete breakdown of the technology of virtual witnessing. Thus, Huygens travelled to London and became part of the Royal Society and replicated his matter of fact. Another problem with replication was that the pumps were constantly being rebuilt, and so results would vary with each reconstruction. According to Shapin and Schaffer there were two main problems with replication in the 1660s. (1) "The accomplishment of replication was dependent on contingent acts of judgment. One cannot write down a formula saying when replication was or was not achieved" and (2) "if replication is the technology which turn belief into knowledge, then knowledge-production depends not just on the abstract exchange of paper and ideas but on the practical social regulation of men and machines." Thus, "the effective solution to the problem of knowledge was predicated upon a solution to the problem of social order."Shapin & Schaffer 1985, pp. 283Chapter VII: Natural Philosophy and the Restoration: Interests in Dispute
"Hobbes and Boyle used the work of the 1640s and 1650s to give rival accounts of the right way to conduct natural philosophy" and, in chapter 7, Shapin and Schaffer show how those models were interpreted and supported by Restoration society. "The experience of the War and the Republic showed that disputed knowledge produced civil strife...Boyle's technologies could only gain assent within a secure social space for experimental practice...Chapter VIII: The Polity of Science: Conclusions
In the final chapter of ''Leviathan and the Air-Pump'', Shapin and Schaffer condense their vastly complicated picture of Restoration society and how it interacted with the development of modern science to three points. "First, scientific practitioners have created, selected, and maintained aReception
The work has been described as a classic example in thePublication history
English editions
*(Hardcover) *(Paperback) *(eBook) *(Paperback)Translations
* * *Notes
Further reading
Notable reviews
* * * * * * * * * * * *"A Second Look"
* * * * * * * * * * *Other
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *External links