•  46
    The methodological origins of Newton’s queries
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 35 (2): 247-269. 2004.
    This paper analyses the different ways in which Isaac Newton employed queries in his writings on natural philosophy. It is argued that queries were used in three different ways by Newton and that each of these uses is best understood against the background of the role that queries played in the Baconian method that was adopted by the leading experimenters of the early Royal Society. After a discussion of the role of queries in Francis Bacon’s natural historical method, Newton’s queries in his Tr…Read more
  •  78
    John Locke and natural philosophy
    Oxford University Press. 2011.
    Peter Anstey presents a thorough and innovative study of John Locke's views on the method and content of natural philosophy. Focusing on Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding, but also drawing extensively from his other writings and manuscript remains, Anstey argues that Locke was an advocate of the Experimental Philosophy: the new approach to natural philosophy championed by Robert Boyle and the early Royal Society who were opposed to speculative philosophy. On the question of method, An…Read more
  •  1379
    The Origins of Early Modern Experimental Philosophy
    Intellectual History Review 22 (4): 499-518. 2012.
    This paper argues that early modern experimental philosophy emerged as the dominant member of a pair of methods in natural philosophy, the speculative versus the experimental, and that this pairing derives from an overarching distinction between speculative and operative philosophy that can be ultimately traced back to Aristotle. The paper examines the traditional classification of natural philosophy as a speculative discipline from the Stagirite to the seventeenth century; medieval and early mo…Read more
  •  36
    Boyle on Occasionalism: An Unexamined Source
    Journal of the History of Ideas 60 (1): 57-81. 1999.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Boyle on Occasionalism: An Unexamined SourcePeter Anstey*1. IntroductionThe question of Robert Boyle’s attitude to occasionalism 1 is central to our understanding of his corpuscular hypothesis, yet there has been little or no consensus in the secondary literature regarding Boyle’s attitude. 2 The doctrine of occasionalism is that matter is causally inefficacious and that God is the only causal agent in nature. It is a doctrine that w…Read more
  •  90
    Robert Boyle and the heuristic value of mechanism
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 33 (1): 157-170. 2002.
    This paper argues that, contrary to the claims of Alan Chalmers, Boyle understood his experimental work to be intimately related to his mechanical philosophy. Its central claim is that the mechanical philosophy has a heuristic structure that motivates and gives direction to Boyle's experimental programme. Boyle was able to delimit the scope of possible explanations of any phenomenon by positing both that all qualities are ultimately reducible to a select group of mechanical qualities and that al…Read more
  •  11
    Hartlib and Starkey Rekindled (review)
    Metascience 13 (1): 112-115. 2004.
  •  17
    Essences and Kinds
    In Desmond M. Clarke & Catherine Wilson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, Oxford University Press. 2011.
    This article examines the views of René Descartes, Robert Boyle, and John Locke on essence and kinds and outlines the polemical stances that motivate and direct each of their views. It describes the ontological categories to which they subscribed and their own speculative theories about the actual kinds in the world. It categories to which they subscribed and their own speculative theories about the actual kinds in the world and discusses the late-Aristotelian theory of substantial forms.
  •  23
    Locke on measurement
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 60 70-81. 2016.
  •  17
  •  5
    Today, John Locke is recognized as one of the most important and formative philosophical influences on the modern world. His imprint is still felt in political and legal thought, in educational theory, moral theory and in the theory of knowledge. Lockes key works, Two Treatises of Government , and the monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , provoked lively debate when they were first published in 1690 and remain standard texts in undergraduate philosophy courses throughout the Engli…Read more
  •  6
    Introduction to Special Issue: The Philosophy of D. M. Armstrong
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 84 (2). 2006.
    This Article does not have an abstract