Boyle's Atomism and the Restoration Assault on Pagan Naturalism

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Abstract
This paper places Boyle's atomism in its social context, and describes the political motives which underlay it. Boyle's physico-theology was designed to answer the ideological challenges thrown up by the turbulent events of mid-seventeenth-century England. After the Restoration, Boyle and the Royal Society continued to use his natural philosophy to this end. One important example is Boyle's A Free Enquiry ... (written in 1666, but not published until 1686). This addresses itself to the heretical implications of scholastic natural philosophy. Scholasticism, argues Boyle, assumes a universe in which a purposive rationality works quite apart from God and divine providence, and m which there is no distinction between 'nature' and 'providence', this may lead to some form of 'paganizing naturalism', and so must be overthrown. Boyle's strategy is first to show that the scholastic conception is not scientifically valid, and then to offer his corpuscular philosophy as a superior alternative. However, Boyle's real enemy was not scholastic theory per se, but those who relied on it - papists and paganizing deists. In shoyving that both cherished outmoded assumptions about nature, Boyle attacked both kinds of idolatry simultaneously. The timing of the appearance of A Free Enquiry also added to its effectiveness as a shrewd piece of Anglican apologetics. It was published just when, because of James II's religious policy, the threat of subversion by papists and 'atheists' bulked larger than ever before in the minds of Anglican churchmen.

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