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Works by Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs

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Canonical name
Dobbs, Betty Jo Teeter
Birthdate
1930-10-19
Date of death
1994-03-29
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Education
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Arkansas
Hendrix College
Occupations
historian
biographer
professor
Organizations
University of California, Davis
History of Science Society
Awards and honors
George Sarton Medal (1997)
Short biography
Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs taught and researched the history of science, specializing in early modern science and the history of alchemy and chemistry. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Hendrix College in Arkansas, a master's degree in psychology from the University of Arkansas, and a doctoral degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1991, she joined the faculty of the history department of the University of California, Davis, after having been a history professor at Northwestern University for more than 15 years. Her books included The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy, or the Hunting of the Green Lyon (1983); Alchemical Death and Resurrection; and The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Thought. In 1997, she was posthumously awarded the George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society.

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Newton's work in alchemy is usually treated as an anomaly given his role as founder of modern physics. Dobbs demonstrates that Newton was one of a number of scientists who continued to find value in the concepts of alchemy. Among these was a belief that all matter was ultimately one, an idea related to Neoplatonism, a philosophy with renewed popularity in Cambridge. Robert Boyle, regarded as the father of modern chemistry, had not completely abandoned the concepts of alchemy. Numbers of other scientists were attempting to reconcile alchemy with the mechanistic philosophy of Descartes. Newton may have performed experiments along these lines, but found them inadequate. As a believer in prisca sapeintia or ancient wisdom, the idea that in earliest times God had granted wisdom and knowledge to the prophets no longer available to moderns, Newton began to read earlier alchemical texts, trying to discern the practical knowledge he thought was concealed by the elaborate symbols and metaphor and mystical language. Ironically modern atomic theory has led to knowledge that matter is all composed of the same basic particles and that transmutation of one element into another is possible.… (more)
 
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Works
4
Also by
1
Members
164
Popularity
#129,117
Rating
4.1
Reviews
1
ISBNs
8
Languages
1
Favorited
2

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