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Is alchemy a science?


AtomicMX

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It really doesn't matter what I say or how I phrase it - arguing with you is like headbutting a brick wall.

 

If you are going to basically deny both evidence and logic I am simply going to have to ignore any such posts.

 

Sorry, but I just don't have the time to devote to yet another bruised internet ego.

 

 

Time to get back on topic.

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Thats why i love physics math and chemistry.... and computers.. you do not have to argue anything... you just do.

 

ego?.... it is not ego... i lost the debate. because you are better debater than me, but beyond that, i got that scientific spark that cannot let me rest when i am not convinced of something. you could make motion to that you have provided the information but you should know that you haven´t.... i accept and say that you are better debater than me, but that of better prepared i dont think so.

 

I may have not a tittle such as you, but i have contested 3 times in the sciences academy chemistry contest.

 

I´d like to see you solving those problems... such as sinthetizing an alarm "fermona".

 

And well.

Just reflex this more than 5 minutes.

I am not the stubborn here.

 

By the way, answer the topic question... is alchemy a science, yes or not?

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  • 7 months later...

If Alchemy made claims that exposed it to falsification by contrary evidence, then by modern standards it is in fact scientific. If the theory opens itself up to the risk of being found false then it meets Popper's requirement of being scientific (a standard which is largely accepted today). In the modern view, a theory is not necessarily unscientific simply because it is false.

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Alchemy is definitely a pseudoscience, just like astrology, biorythyms, creationism, homeopathy and palmistry. I actually like reading about pseudoscience to improve my critical thinking abilities. I know alchemy is the attempts to try and "make" gold, but is there anything more to it?

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Going by dim recollections from readings decades ago I would have to say that alchemy was a science. As the scientific method became better defined the alchemists split into two groups: one transformed into our modern chemists; the other focused the transformation of the elements, especially base elements into gold. This was a perfectly logical pursuit, based upon the Greek understanding of the nature and consititution of matter. As evidence accumulated from the studies of the alchemists that hypothesis became less and less tenable, and the bifurcation noted above occured.

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