TABLE OF CONTENTS

pp., bibliography, 88 titles. The purpose of this study is to examine how English natural philosophers of the seventeenth centuryin particular, Robert Boyle (16271691)considered and assessed the personal traits of skill and experience and the significance of these characteristics to the practice of seventeenth-century science. Boyles writings reveal that skill and experience impacted various aspects of his seventeenth-century experimental natural philosophy, including the credibility assessment of tradesmen and eyewitnesses to natural phenomena, the contingencies involved in the making of experiments, and Boyles statements about the requisite skills of experimental philosophy in contrast to other traditions. Subtopics explored include the popularization of science and Boyles expectations concerning the future improvement of natural philosophy. ii Copyright 2000 b