Why was Alchemy Considered a Pseudoscience? Paracelsianism and the Controversies between the Scholars of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F49777513%3A23330%2F22%3A43964719" target="_blank" >RIV/49777513:23330/22:43964719 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://medwinpublishers.com/PhIJ/index.php" target="_blank" >https://medwinpublishers.com/PhIJ/index.php</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.23880/phij-16000230" target="_blank" >10.23880/phij-16000230</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Why was Alchemy Considered a Pseudoscience? Paracelsianism and the Controversies between the Scholars of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Original language description

This paper has two main goals: firstly, to display the controversies between the physicians, natural and alchemical philosophers of the Scientific Revolution; and, secondly, to explain the factors which contributed in considering alchemy a pseudoscience. Through the study of primary and secondary sources as well as the comparative history it will be shown that the traditional historical view about the delay of the Chemical Revolution, according to which alchemy should not be considered a “science” and did not participate in the Scientific Revolution, was not created by the historians, but by the same alchemical philosophers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as they began to reject basic principles of alchemy by emphasizing it as a pseudoscience. Many factors contributed to this accusation, but this paper supports that one of the most important was the development and spread of Paracelsianism and the polemical debate existed among the Paracelsians (Paracelsus’s followers) and anti-Paracelsians (Paracelsus’s attackers) about the nature and scientificity of alchemy, as many supporters and opponents of Paracelsus labeled each other pseudo-Christians, pseudo-philosophers and pseudo-chemists.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Philosophy International Journal

ISSN

2641-9130

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

5

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

7

Pages from-to

nestrankovano

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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