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Full Idea
There is no suggestion in Boyle that secondary qualities are, unlike primary qualities, somehow illusory, subjective or 'in the mind'.
Gist of Idea
Boyle's secondary qualities are not illusory, or 'in the mind'
Source
report of Robert Boyle (The Origin of Forms and Qualities [1666]) by Peter Alexander - Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles 03.3
Book Ref
Alexander,Peter: 'Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles' [CUP 1985], p.71
A Reaction
[Alexander goes on to say that his also applied to Locke]
15964 | Boyle's secondary qualities are not illusory, or 'in the mind' [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
15965 | Boyle attacked a contemporary belief that powers were occult things [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
16735 | In the 17th century, 'disposition' usually just means the spatial arrangement of parts [Boyle, by Pasnau] |
15962 | Boyle's term 'texture' is not something you feel, but is unobservable structures of particles [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
15952 | The corpuscles just have shape, size and motion, which explains things without 'sympathies' or 'forces' [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
15972 | The corpuscular theory allows motion, but does not include forces between the particles [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
16034 | Form is not a separate substance, but just the manner, modification or 'stamp' of matter [Boyle] |
15957 | Essential definitions show the differences that discriminate things, and make them what they are [Boyle] |
15960 | Explanation is deducing a phenomenon from some nature better known to us [Boyle] |
15953 | To cite a substantial form tells us what produced the effect, but not how it did it [Boyle] |