Universum and the mutable Universum, i.e. constant and variable. In metaphysics
sa well as in proto-astronomy, such division is manifested as immovable stars and
movable spheres of the planets. Since the nature of substance has been viewed as a
mirror picture of the sky, than the matter should also have its constant and variable
component: constant simple elements/principles versus variable and transformable
complex substances.
But, there has appeared the question about the number of elements. Is there only
one element or principle by which all the nature could be represented, or the
number of elements is larger? Interestingly, the number of elements has expanded
through the history. Thales of Miletus (cca. 624–547 B.C.) and Anaximander of
Miletus (610–546 B.C.) have considered water as a sole element. While for
Anaximenes of Miletus (cca. 528 B.C.) the sole principle is air, for Heraclitus of
Efez (535–475 B.C.) it is fire. Reducibility of all the things to the One, proto-mater
or proto-origin of the everything is in principle the idea about the unity of
Universum, the concept that has been developed in the philosophical system called
monism. Accordingly, Thales derives all the substance and all the principles from
the prime mater, apeiqom, that in the later history of chemical philosophy appears
as PRIMA MATERIA. Such consideration of the reducibility on the One was
especially fruitful in the development of chemistry as an experimental science. Is it
possible to prepare a sort of prime mater, or at least to approach to it by practical
activity, by experiments? This challenge is a Holy Graal of chemistry that has
triggered the work of all the future scientists.
Replacement of Thales’ water for the Anaximander’s humidity, or for the
Anaximen’s air, is nothing more but the question of representation in the form of
different metaphors. However, fire, the element that Heraclitus is setting in the origin
of all the things is of different nature. Fire is not only a principle, it is a representation
of change, transformation, dynamics and the irreversibility. By using fire as a
principle Heraclitus departs from the concept of the substance as a basis of element:
the world consists not from objects but rather from changes in the vortex of events in
the time. Similar philosophical system appeared in twentieth century by Alfred North
Whitehead who has proposed that the elementary particle should be replaced by the
elementary event. The nature of fire is not only temporal rather than material, it is also
the basic force that can provoke all the other observable changes. In Heraclitus
thoughts, element and dynamics are intertwined on a specific way. The intention of
the philosophy to find the way, and to approach the elusive point in which the PRIMA
MATERIA is concentrated, has provoked the formation of the more and more
complex ideas about the elements. The substance with its highest level of complexity
is one pole of of the Universum, which represent a contrast to another pole of the
distant geometrical chilling of the space. The World seems as a sort of the universal
organism, which Empedocles of Akragas (Agrigento) (495–435 B.C.) has imagined to be composed from four elements-principles. To water of Thales, to air of
Anaximenes and to the fire of Heraclitus Empedocles has attached something stable
and persistent—the earth. These four Empedocles’ elements, earth, water, air, and
fire have shaped the schematic concept of the structure of matter, which was actual in
the philosophy and science for the following two thousand years. Al of those will be
2 Perceptions, Experiments and Principles
21
sa well as in proto-astronomy, such division is manifested as immovable stars and
movable spheres of the planets. Since the nature of substance has been viewed as a
mirror picture of the sky, than the matter should also have its constant and variable
component: constant simple elements/principles versus variable and transformable
complex substances.
But, there has appeared the question about the number of elements. Is there only
one element or principle by which all the nature could be represented, or the
number of elements is larger? Interestingly, the number of elements has expanded
through the history. Thales of Miletus (cca. 624–547 B.C.) and Anaximander of
Miletus (610–546 B.C.) have considered water as a sole element. While for
Anaximenes of Miletus (cca. 528 B.C.) the sole principle is air, for Heraclitus of
Efez (535–475 B.C.) it is fire. Reducibility of all the things to the One, proto-mater
or proto-origin of the everything is in principle the idea about the unity of
Universum, the concept that has been developed in the philosophical system called
monism. Accordingly, Thales derives all the substance and all the principles from
the prime mater, apeiqom, that in the later history of chemical philosophy appears
as PRIMA MATERIA. Such consideration of the reducibility on the One was
especially fruitful in the development of chemistry as an experimental science. Is it
possible to prepare a sort of prime mater, or at least to approach to it by practical
activity, by experiments? This challenge is a Holy Graal of chemistry that has
triggered the work of all the future scientists.
Replacement of Thales’ water for the Anaximander’s humidity, or for the
Anaximen’s air, is nothing more but the question of representation in the form of
different metaphors. However, fire, the element that Heraclitus is setting in the origin
of all the things is of different nature. Fire is not only a principle, it is a representation
of change, transformation, dynamics and the irreversibility. By using fire as a
principle Heraclitus departs from the concept of the substance as a basis of element:
the world consists not from objects but rather from changes in the vortex of events in
the time. Similar philosophical system appeared in twentieth century by Alfred North
Whitehead who has proposed that the elementary particle should be replaced by the
elementary event. The nature of fire is not only temporal rather than material, it is also
the basic force that can provoke all the other observable changes. In Heraclitus
thoughts, element and dynamics are intertwined on a specific way. The intention of
the philosophy to find the way, and to approach the elusive point in which the PRIMA
MATERIA is concentrated, has provoked the formation of the more and more
complex ideas about the elements. The substance with its highest level of complexity
is one pole of of the Universum, which represent a contrast to another pole of the
distant geometrical chilling of the space. The World seems as a sort of the universal
organism, which Empedocles of Akragas (Agrigento) (495–435 B.C.) has imagined to be composed from four elements-principles. To water of Thales, to air of
Anaximenes and to the fire of Heraclitus Empedocles has attached something stable
and persistent—the earth. These four Empedocles’ elements, earth, water, air, and
fire have shaped the schematic concept of the structure of matter, which was actual in
the philosophy and science for the following two thousand years. Al of those will be
2 Perceptions, Experiments and Principles
21