Editing Robert Boyle (section)

=== Emphasis on experiments ===
On several occasions, he mentions that to keep his judgment as unprepossessed as might be with any of the modern theories of philosophy, until he was "provided of experiments" to help him judge of them. He refrained from any study of the [[atomism|atomical]] and the [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] systems, and even of the Novum Organum itself, though he admits to "transiently consulting" them about a few particulars. Nothing was more alien to his mental temperament than the spinning of hypotheses. "I, ... love not to believe any thing upon Conjectures, when by a not over-difficult Experiment I can try whether it be True or no..."<ref name="Boyle 1660">{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/chepfl-lipr-AXA74/page/6/ |title=New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air, and its effects (made, for the most part, in a new pneumatical engine): Written by way of letter to the Right Honorable Charles, Lord Vicount of Dungarvan, eldest son to the Earl of Corke |date=1660 |publisher=Printed by H. Hall for Tho. Robinson |pages=6 |language=en}}</ref>

He regarded the acquisition of knowledge as an end in itself, and in consequence, he gained a wider outlook on the aims of scientific inquiry than had been enjoyed by his predecessors for many centuries. This, however, did not mean that he paid no attention to the practical application of science, nor that he despised practical knowledge.<ref name="EB1911" />
[[File:Acta Eruditorum - XI fisica, 1682 – BEIC 13349171.jpg|thumb|Fig. 3: Illustration of ''Excerptum ex collectionibus philosophicis anglicis... novum genus lampadis à Rob. Boyle'' ... published in [[Acta Eruditorum]], 1682]]