In spite to a new light, and a glimpse of new concepts, alchemical experiments
described in the literature of that time were still an almost arbitrary mixture of
innumerable data and observations.
Experiment as a starting point of mechanistic thinking, and the traditional (al)chemical experiment, both put in the focus of rational reasoning the method. I t can
be said that the 17th century was the century of method. Since all earlier knowledge
collected in the experience of alchemy and other disciplines was chaotic, it has been
necessary to submit it to verification by using the rigorous systematic approach
because only the organized science can be presented to community. Focusing on
the method was not only important for the rigor of original science, but also for the
development of methods of education. Copernican turn in the system of education,
which has been focused on the acquisition of equilibrated knowledge, was introduced by bishop Jan Amoš Komenski (1592–1670), the Czech philosopher and
methodicist. For Komenski, the integrity of knowledge, the pansophia, comprises
the unification of religious, rational, and occult experience, as well as the way of
thinking [5]. Isn’t the spiritual alchemy exactly the discipline, which has for centuries been immersed in pansophian unification?
The utopian idea about the perfect free society, which got its climax in the
Enlightenment, was realizable only through the new system of general education.
I wish to argue that, as the scientific methodology has caused the change in
methodics of education, the same education made a pressure on science to organize
itself on a new way. Systematic evaluation of the present chaotic scientific experiences has triggered new scientific knowledge, and initiation of new intellectual
paradigm.
It has been necessary to organize also the alchemical knowledge by separating
its important from its unimportant content. This was the beginning of the creation of
the chemical conceptual system. The result was the appearance of the first
alchemical textbook. Medic and alchemist Andreas Libavius (1555–1616) has
published the alchemical textbook Alchemia, on the threshold of the 17th century,
in the year 1597.
To be efficient, the democratization of education should involve in itself the
objectification and the internationalization of the knowledge by establishing corresponding standards and conventions. Step-out from the frames of the closed
impenetrable circles of scientists is possible only by the establishment of a sort of
international catalogue, the database that would comprise the most of scientists,
philosophers, and ideas, independently on their institutions and geographical
affiliations.
Such intellectual network has appeared during the first half of the 17th century,
as a consequence of the widespread correspondence of Samuel Hartlib (?1600–
1662). Hartlib’s epistolary circle, the Invisible College, [6] started to expand with
the cooperation with the nearest collaborators, among which were already
52
5 Occult Enlightenment
described in the literature of that time were still an almost arbitrary mixture of
innumerable data and observations.
Experiment as a starting point of mechanistic thinking, and the traditional (al)chemical experiment, both put in the focus of rational reasoning the method. I t can
be said that the 17th century was the century of method. Since all earlier knowledge
collected in the experience of alchemy and other disciplines was chaotic, it has been
necessary to submit it to verification by using the rigorous systematic approach
because only the organized science can be presented to community. Focusing on
the method was not only important for the rigor of original science, but also for the
development of methods of education. Copernican turn in the system of education,
which has been focused on the acquisition of equilibrated knowledge, was introduced by bishop Jan Amoš Komenski (1592–1670), the Czech philosopher and
methodicist. For Komenski, the integrity of knowledge, the pansophia, comprises
the unification of religious, rational, and occult experience, as well as the way of
thinking [5]. Isn’t the spiritual alchemy exactly the discipline, which has for centuries been immersed in pansophian unification?
The utopian idea about the perfect free society, which got its climax in the
Enlightenment, was realizable only through the new system of general education.
I wish to argue that, as the scientific methodology has caused the change in
methodics of education, the same education made a pressure on science to organize
itself on a new way. Systematic evaluation of the present chaotic scientific experiences has triggered new scientific knowledge, and initiation of new intellectual
paradigm.
It has been necessary to organize also the alchemical knowledge by separating
its important from its unimportant content. This was the beginning of the creation of
the chemical conceptual system. The result was the appearance of the first
alchemical textbook. Medic and alchemist Andreas Libavius (1555–1616) has
published the alchemical textbook Alchemia, on the threshold of the 17th century,
in the year 1597.
To be efficient, the democratization of education should involve in itself the
objectification and the internationalization of the knowledge by establishing corresponding standards and conventions. Step-out from the frames of the closed
impenetrable circles of scientists is possible only by the establishment of a sort of
international catalogue, the database that would comprise the most of scientists,
philosophers, and ideas, independently on their institutions and geographical
affiliations.
Such intellectual network has appeared during the first half of the 17th century,
as a consequence of the widespread correspondence of Samuel Hartlib (?1600–
1662). Hartlib’s epistolary circle, the Invisible College, [6] started to expand with
the cooperation with the nearest collaborators, among which were already
52
5 Occult Enlightenment