Nicholas Best

Abstract. I intend to pursue research into 18th-century chemistry as part of my dissertation project on the history of philosophical treatments of the chemical revolution. Primary sources by Pierre-Joseph Macquer, Antoine Baumé and others will be used to characterize Antoine Lavoisier’s attitudes to his predecessors. Understandings of how Lavoisier himself characterized the chemical revolution will shed light on the use of phlogiston chemistry as a case study for various methodologies of science, a tradition continuing beyond the end of the twentieth century. Here is a report of his research as a fellow.