anti-aristotelianism

Updated: September 19, 2026

His basic anti-Aristotelianism prevented his appreciating the biologically oriented thought of Aristotle. Instead, Boyle talked about the inorganic world, of water, of metals and elements, of physical properties. He ignored that inner drive which Spinoza called the conatus; or the seeds of Paracelsus or van Helmont; or the persistence over a time course of any "essence" or "form."

Charles W. Bodemer - Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England: Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, October 14, 1967