Alchemia pomiędzy pseudonauką a nauką. Studium historyczno-metodologiczne

• Authors: Radosław Kazibut

Title variants

EN

Alchemy between pseudoscience and science. The Historical and Methodological Study

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

Traditionally, alchemy is regarded as an example of pseudoscience. In this paper I dispute this view and demonstrate that the practice of alchemy, in many aspects, can be interpreted as an experiment in protoscience. In the first part of the article, I introduce William R. Newman’s and Lawrence Principe’s analyses about the etymological origin of alchemy, its historiography and the origin of the separation between alchemy and chemistry. In the second part of the article I discuss different aspects on the practice of alchemy in light of the issues encountered with the inter-subjective repeatability of the experiments and the methods used to publicize the findings. In addition to the examination of the subjects researched, I also review the systematic elements found in the theoretical considerations presented by the alchemists.

Keywords

PL

alchemia; chemia; pseudonauka; kryterium demarkacji; powtarzalność i odtwarzalność

EN

alchemy; chemistry; pseudoscience; demarcation; repeatability and reproducibility

• Publisher: Science Studies Committee, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Zagadnienia Naukoznawstwa
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 1 (191)
• Pages: 27-47

Contributors

author

Radosław Kazibut

• Zakład Filozofii Techniki i Rozwoju Cywilizacji Instytut Filozofii UAM Poznań