ABSTRACT
This chapter reconsiders the role of pleasure in the natural philosopher Robert Boyle's (1627–1691) programme of chemical experimentation. It is widely known that Boyle and other members of the early Royal Society of London emphasised the pleasures to be had from chemical experimentation. So far, however, there has been little recognition that figures such as Boyle used these aesthetic or sensory pleasures to make scientific arguments. Far from simply regarding pleasure as an incitement to scientific activity, they suggested that sensory pleasure could enable the experimenter to identify substances, and even to figure out their ontological status. For these scientists, the aesthetic experience of experiment was a tool of scientific inquiry, making it possible to answer pressing questions about the transformations brought about by chemical means.
