science, but which seemed convenient for experimentation. The exact time in the
history when experiments have emerged from practical crafts, or in other words, the
time when manipulation with the substances has changed its role from practical to
metaphysical is difficult to determine. As new speculative systems always appear by
amalgamation of various views, the philosophical activity that has been transformed
to chemistry appeared by intertwining of everyday craftsmen skills with the already
developed philosophical systems.
How to rationalize the speculations about the nature of the substance? How to
interpret the immeasurable and transformable stuff, and how from this interpretation
to shape a particular world-view? What are categories of matter? Appearance of the
metaphysics of substance is known in almost all of the ancient civilizations, but we
will focus our discussion on the ideas, which were appeared on the Eurasian
Mediteranesn region. Metaphysics, which emerged from the immediate manipulation with substance, i.e. from the proto-experiment, has its origin in the philosophical circle in Miletus in Asia Minor from 7th till 5th century B.C.
Conceptualization of such a world-view requires delineation of the system based on
categories. These categories, which are also the main categories of the modern
chemistry, are principle (element), structure, change (dynamics), and preparation,
i.e. the intentional transformation of the nature, the act of creativity in the shaping
of new substances. In contrast to the first three categories, the last one declines from
science, and it rather belong to the art, the sort of architecture of microcosm, the art
of designing new forms of matter. The role of preparation in chemistry is twofold: it
is practical for the supply of new materials for everyday use, and, from the other
hand, the mindful chemical synthesis expands the general view on the nature. The
specificity of chemistry is, in contrast to other scientific disciplines, that it designs
its proper objects of investigation!
Principle or element is the category with two faces. It is the matter which we
recognize immediately by sensation, the substance in the vessel, visible and tangible, but it is also the abstraction on the philosophical and scientific level. A long
evolution of the cognition of the Universe, from sensation to the abstraction, led
finally to science and art. It is important to point out here, that even the modern
definition of the chemical element as a mathematical set of nuclei with the same
positive charge is abstract! It is important to recognize that for instance iron, which
could be weld or held in hand is the elementary stuff, not an element. If the element
already in antiquity appeared as an abstraction, the question that appear is the
abstraction of what? This is the question that lead to the duality of the notion of
element as an abstraction of the substance, and as an abstraction of the principle. If
we contemplate about the world as a collection of principles, the image of the
substance is vanishing, and, oppositely, if we are focused on the sensible matter, the
idea about principles becomes vague. Such kinds of ambiguities, which have later
been expressed in the uncertainty principle, will be actualized through the development of philosophy of science, and also through the development of philosophy
of chemistry.
Behind the ancient idea about the elements/principles, there is much wider
concept about the division of the Universum in two categories, the immobile
20
2 Perceptions, Experiments and Principles
history when experiments have emerged from practical crafts, or in other words, the
time when manipulation with the substances has changed its role from practical to
metaphysical is difficult to determine. As new speculative systems always appear by
amalgamation of various views, the philosophical activity that has been transformed
to chemistry appeared by intertwining of everyday craftsmen skills with the already
developed philosophical systems.
How to rationalize the speculations about the nature of the substance? How to
interpret the immeasurable and transformable stuff, and how from this interpretation
to shape a particular world-view? What are categories of matter? Appearance of the
metaphysics of substance is known in almost all of the ancient civilizations, but we
will focus our discussion on the ideas, which were appeared on the Eurasian
Mediteranesn region. Metaphysics, which emerged from the immediate manipulation with substance, i.e. from the proto-experiment, has its origin in the philosophical circle in Miletus in Asia Minor from 7th till 5th century B.C.
Conceptualization of such a world-view requires delineation of the system based on
categories. These categories, which are also the main categories of the modern
chemistry, are principle (element), structure, change (dynamics), and preparation,
i.e. the intentional transformation of the nature, the act of creativity in the shaping
of new substances. In contrast to the first three categories, the last one declines from
science, and it rather belong to the art, the sort of architecture of microcosm, the art
of designing new forms of matter. The role of preparation in chemistry is twofold: it
is practical for the supply of new materials for everyday use, and, from the other
hand, the mindful chemical synthesis expands the general view on the nature. The
specificity of chemistry is, in contrast to other scientific disciplines, that it designs
its proper objects of investigation!
Principle or element is the category with two faces. It is the matter which we
recognize immediately by sensation, the substance in the vessel, visible and tangible, but it is also the abstraction on the philosophical and scientific level. A long
evolution of the cognition of the Universe, from sensation to the abstraction, led
finally to science and art. It is important to point out here, that even the modern
definition of the chemical element as a mathematical set of nuclei with the same
positive charge is abstract! It is important to recognize that for instance iron, which
could be weld or held in hand is the elementary stuff, not an element. If the element
already in antiquity appeared as an abstraction, the question that appear is the
abstraction of what? This is the question that lead to the duality of the notion of
element as an abstraction of the substance, and as an abstraction of the principle. If
we contemplate about the world as a collection of principles, the image of the
substance is vanishing, and, oppositely, if we are focused on the sensible matter, the
idea about principles becomes vague. Such kinds of ambiguities, which have later
been expressed in the uncertainty principle, will be actualized through the development of philosophy of science, and also through the development of philosophy
of chemistry.
Behind the ancient idea about the elements/principles, there is much wider
concept about the division of the Universum in two categories, the immobile
20
2 Perceptions, Experiments and Principles