Behn and the Scientific Self

An astounding number of watershed events occurred in the period between 1660 and 1700 in England, the establishment of a national institution for pursuing science not least among them. The intellectual tumult in Europe during the seventeenth century produced, in 1662, the chartering of The Royal Society, which was dedicated to the search for knowledge to be used for the benefit of humanity through a particular movement in natural philosophy called the “New Science,” also known as experimental philosophy. As part of the Royal Society’s efforts to secure greater respect and a larger following for its methods and conclusions, its fellows engaged in a public campaign to make those methods and conclusions mainstream. Such efforts, including Robert Hooke’s spectacular Micrographia (1665) and Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal Society (1667), had mixed results in terms of public approval, but they were successful in terms of bringing the ideas and methods of experimental philosophy into the cultural mainstream. Other innovators, including dramatists and prose writers, picked up these ideas and used them for the literary developments of the time. One such author was Aphra Behn (c.1640–89). Her narratives reveal a profound interest in the concerns and methods of natural philosophy and demonstrate how the ideas, methods, and rhetorical challenges of the philosophical debates directly influenced the emerging novel’s interests and form.