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Corpuscularianism is a physical theory that supposed all matter to be composed of minute particles, which became important in the seventeenth century. Among the leading corpuscularians were Rene Descartes,Pierre Gassendi, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and John Locke. Corpuscularianism is similar to the theory of atomism, except that where atoms were supposed to be indivisible, corpuscles could in principle be divided. In this manner, for example, it was theorized that mercury could penetrate into metals and modify their inner structure, a step on the way towards the production of gold by transmutation. Corpuscularianism was associated by its leading proponents with the idea that some of the properties that objects appear to have are artifacts of the perceiving mind: "secondary" qualities as distinguished from "primary" qualities.〔(The Mechanical Philosophy ) - Early modern 'atomism' ("corpuscularianism" as it was known)〕 Corpuscularianism stayed a dominant theory for centuries and was blended with alchemy by early scientists such as Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton in the 17th century. In his work, ''The Sceptical Chymist'' (1661) Boyle abandoned the Aristotelian ideas of the classical elements—earth, water, air, and fire in favor of corpuscularianism. His later work, ''The Origin of Forms and Qualities'' (1666), Boyle used corpuscularianism to explain all of the major Aristotelian concepts, marking a departure from traditional Aristotelianism. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes used corpuscularianism to justify his political theories in ''Leviathan''.〔〔(Corpuscularianism ) - Philosophical Dictionary〕 It was used by Newton in his development of the corpuscular theory of light, while Boyle used it to develop his mechanical corpuscular philosophy, which laid the foundations for the Chemical Revolution. ==Alchemical Corpuscularianism== William R. Newman traces the origins from the fourth book of Aristotle, ''Meteorology''.〔''Late medieval and early modern corpuscular matter theories'' Volume 1 of ''Medieval and Early Modern Science'', Christoph Lüthy, J. E. Murdoch, William R. Newman BRILL, 2001 ISBN 978-90-04-11516-3〕 The "dry" and "moist" exhalations of Aristotle became the alchemical 'sulfur' and 'mercury' of the eighth-century Islamic alchemist, Jābir ibn Hayyān (721–815), and others. The thirteenth-century ''Summa perfectionis'' of Pseudo-Geber, an Italian Franciscan or Spanish〔Fredric L. Holmes and Trevor H. Levere. ''Instruments and Experimentation in the History of Chemistry''. MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-262-08282-2.〕 alchemist sometimes identified as Paul of Taranto, contains a theory where unified sulfur and mercury corpuscles, differing in purity, size, and relative proportions, form the basis of a much more complicated process.〔The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science JOHN A. NORRIS AMBIX, Vol. 53, No. 1, March 2006, 43–65 © Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 2006 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Corpuscularianism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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