3
Synthesis of Philosophy
and Technology
All is interrelated. Heaven and earth, air and water. All are but
one thing not four, not two and not three, but one. Where they
are not together, there is only an incomplete piece
Paracelsus
Abstract
This chapter is dedicated to the first appearance of chemistry, the Alexandrian
proto-chemistry. The practice of experimentation with its scope to materialize
the Aristotelian, and Platonian philosophies, which has appeared during the
period of Hellenism, is considered as an origin of chemistry, and as the
predecessor of Arabian and European alchemy.
Keywords
Alexandria Á Hellenism Á Proto-chemistry Á Experiment Á Philosophy of change Á
Philosophical gold Á Great Work Á Opus magnum Á Aurifictors Á Aurifactors
Ladies and gentlemen,
Two origins from which chemistry has developed, philosophy with its basic categories (element or principle, continuity, discontinuity, transformation, structure), as
well as craftsmen practice of smiths and metallurgists, got together in Alexandria, in
the new city that has been constructed in 331 year B.C. New science, the new
paradigm, emerges in the history almost always as a result of the synthesis of often
quite different practices and ways of thinking. From the analysis of the historical
conditions in which the most important theories were invented, we could draw the
rule by which a scientific revolution, the change of paradigm, results from amalgamation of concepts from different fields. Thus, the scientist has greater chance for
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
H. Vančik, Philosophy of Chemistry, Integrated Science 2,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69224-7_3
31
Synthesis of Philosophy
and Technology
All is interrelated. Heaven and earth, air and water. All are but
one thing not four, not two and not three, but one. Where they
are not together, there is only an incomplete piece
Paracelsus
Abstract
This chapter is dedicated to the first appearance of chemistry, the Alexandrian
proto-chemistry. The practice of experimentation with its scope to materialize
the Aristotelian, and Platonian philosophies, which has appeared during the
period of Hellenism, is considered as an origin of chemistry, and as the
predecessor of Arabian and European alchemy.
Keywords
Alexandria Á Hellenism Á Proto-chemistry Á Experiment Á Philosophy of change Á
Philosophical gold Á Great Work Á Opus magnum Á Aurifictors Á Aurifactors
Ladies and gentlemen,
Two origins from which chemistry has developed, philosophy with its basic categories (element or principle, continuity, discontinuity, transformation, structure), as
well as craftsmen practice of smiths and metallurgists, got together in Alexandria, in
the new city that has been constructed in 331 year B.C. New science, the new
paradigm, emerges in the history almost always as a result of the synthesis of often
quite different practices and ways of thinking. From the analysis of the historical
conditions in which the most important theories were invented, we could draw the
rule by which a scientific revolution, the change of paradigm, results from amalgamation of concepts from different fields. Thus, the scientist has greater chance for
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
H. Vančik, Philosophy of Chemistry, Integrated Science 2,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69224-7_3
31