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Schettino 2017 Substantia

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Schettino V (2017) Isaac Newton and alchemy. Substantia 1:69-76.

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Schettino V (2017) Substantia

Abstract: Isaac Newton dedicated a good part of his activity to alchemical experiments. This article tries to discuss the motivations that drove Newton to spend so much of his time in the laboratory: the search for a unitary vision of the forces acting in the macrocosm and in the microcosm, the belief on a hidden prisca sapientia in the occult philosophy to be rediscovered with a scientific approach and the dispute with materialistic philosophy.

Bioblast editor: Gnaiger E

Some citations

Attraction, affinity, force

* Affinity
* Force
Schettino 2017 Substantia.png
  • The unitary concept, in fact, implied the transformation and convergence of opposites like, for instance, it can be seen from Figure 2 [right: A picture of the unitary alchemical cosmology] for fixed and volatile. Indeed, in Newton’s transcription from Hermes Trismegistus we find:
That which is Above is like that which is Below and that which is Below is like that which is Above, to accomplish the miracles of only one thing.
This was an essential point in Newton’s ideas about gravitation. In fact, he realized that, although the laws of attraction between the heavenly bodies had been laid down,
Thus far I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the force of gravity, but I have not yet assigned a cause to gravity. Indeed, this force arises from some cause that penetrates as far as the centers of the sun and planets without any diminution of its power to act, and that acts not in proportion to the quantity of the surfaces of the particles on which it acts (as mechanical causes are want to do) but in proportion to the quantity of solid matter, and whose action is extended everywhere to immense distances, always decreasing as the squares of the distances,
the causes that maintained the planets in motion were not clarified:
It is inconceivable, that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter without mutual contact… That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent, acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.
The existence of attraction forces between inanimate bodies at a distance, and not in contact through something intermediate, was not conceivable in the XVII century. - (p 74)
Ouroboros Kekule benzene.png
Figure: The cyclic molecular structure of benzene and the ouroboros eating its own tail. Image credit: Haltopub / CC BY-SA.
In a famous conference Kekulé, after recalling the metaphor of sitting on the shoulders of giants, concluded exalting the dream and the imagination for the progress of science:
Let’s learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find
the truth
And to those who don’t think
The truth will be given
They’ll have it without effort
But let us beware of publishing our dreams till they have
been tested by the waking understanding.
* Oroboros symbol