Background Information
In the past, alchemy grew in popularity from as early as 300BC for the hopes of changing matter of lesser value into its greatest potential. Alchemy mainly practiced the act of transmutation: the changing of one element into another element. The practice is most commonly known for the goal of converting metals, such as lead, into gold. However, around the 17th and 18th century, alchemy’s relevance diminished as chemistry went on the rise during this time. With this decline of alchemy continuing, should alchemy be titled as a dead science, pseudoscience or to never actually be considered as a science? In recent history, chemistry emerged from alchemy, and ever since then alchemy was only a thing of the past. Ultimately, one classifies the practice of alchemy as no more than just a pseudoscience.
Alchemy has been practice universally and has undergone multiple forms causing a lack of accuracy and clarity in its purpose. The practice of alchemy also revolved around the spiritual view of the world, …show more content…
With Poppers philosophy in mind, the practice of alchemy cannot be falsified. The quote below shows as to the reason why alchemy cannot be falsified by making a comparison to the practice of chemistry; the writer comments:
“the modern chemist tries, as far as possible, to isolate the system under study from the remaining parts of the world and to fix all the parameters in order to get a quantitative answer which will confirm or deny his theory. In these conditions, the theory is falsifiable, which is the usual criterium of its scientific status [17]. Such a criterium cannot be satisfied by the alchemist who believes in the infinite chain of interrelations between all material and spiritual beings in the world so that it is impossible to isolate any fraction of it from the others.” (Tramer et al.