ALCHEMY OF THE RENAISSANCE TODAY: SCIENTIFIC-EDUCATIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC-HISTORICAL APPROACH

• Vinokurov, V.
• Vorontsova, M.

Abstract:

The scientific-educational approach, combining the educational point of view with the scientific criticism of the educational approach, was formed, oddly enough, in the study of alchemy, and views the latter as a stage in the development of chemistry. It is this approach which combined the ideas of the Enlightenment with natural science and its history and became the basis for the formation of a classical view of the Hermetic tradition. This approach is based on the reality of the object of alchemy, proving that it is indeed real, and that behind the curtain of illusions and allegories lies the ‘solid body’ of chemical transformations and very unusual experiments of physics. This approach is focused on desacralizing the content of ancient and medieval ‘dark’ texts, to identify in them a scientific component and reformulate in modern scientific language the problems they solve. In this text the rational components of alchemy are considered from the point of view of the history of thermodynamics. One can give a ‘thermodynamic’ interpretation of the alchemical fragments of ‘Atalanta fugiens’ (EMBLEMS III, IV, V). Describing the stages of the Great Work, alchemists widely use metaphors, legends and various forms of allegory. The alchemists knew that thermal effects almost always accompany chemical changes. It is shown that the basis for a number of alchemic experiments is the correct scientific idea of the thermodynamic effect of a chemical reaction.

SGEM Research areas:

• SOCIAL SCIENCES: Section Urban Studies

Year:

2018

Type of Publication:

In Proceedings

Keywords:

alchemy; scientific approach; history of science; history of chemistry; history of thermodynamics

Volume:

18

SGEM Book title:

5th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM 2018

Book number:

2.3

SGEM Series:

International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts-SGEM

Pages:

97-102

Publisher address:

51 Alexander Malinov blvd, Sofia, 1712, Bulgaria

SGEM supporters:

Bulgarian Acad Sci; Acad Sci Czech Republ; Latvian Acad Sci; Polish Acad Sci; Russian Acad Sci; Serbian Acad Sci & Arts; Slovak Acad Sci; Natl Acad Sci Ukraine; Natl Acad Sci Armenia; Sci Council Japan; World Acad Sci; European Acad Sci, Arts & Letters; Ac

Period:

23 - 26 October, 2018

ISBN:

978-619-7408-68-3

ISSN:

2367-5659

Conference:

5th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM 2018, 23 - 26 October, 2018

DOI:

10.5593/sgemsocialF2018/2.3/S19.012