Productivity and the Seductive Power of Alchemy

In my thesis I will reflect from a philosophical perspective on the nature of innovation resp. the creation of the new by studying transmutational alchemy, i.e. a specific branch of early modern alchemy. In a historical retrospective, early modern alchemy is usually considered to be the ultimate „other“ in regard to modern rationality. Therefore, revisiting early modern transmutational alchemy from a philosophical point of view holds the opportunity to reconsider the creation of the new without postulating the modern equation of innovation and technological progress that underlies present discourses on innovation and the new. On that account, this dissertation differs substantially from common interpretational works. It rejects the prevailing understanding of transmutational alchemy as a spiritualistic, protoscientific, or technological project that supposedly aimed at objectified output such as gold or other metallurgic products. In contrast, I will argue that transmutational alchemy is not about the output per se. The philosopher’s stone will be understood as a symbolic emblem of the performative creative process transmutational alchemy passes through rather than its reified output. I propose to consider transmutational alchemy being a specific form of practical natural philosophy that reflects on natural creation not through discourse and text but through material practice. I will call this way of philosophical reasoning performative metaphysics of creation and innovation. The performative aspect of the alchemist’s practice implies a specific individualized epistemic dimension of transmutation opposing the idea of an objective symbolic knowledge. Hence, each transmutational process has to be considered unique and it has to be accomplished individually anew by each adept. This epistemic individuality of the alchemical opus also manifests itself in the way alchemy is being perceived in historic retrospective until today. The astonishing polyphony or “metachrosis”, as I will call it, in historic interpretations of alchemy will be discussed as a direct consequence of the epistemic individuality and performativity of transmutational alchemy. In the second part of my thesis I will elaborate on the key dimensions of alchemical creation by focusing on the close reading of one of the major treatises of early modern transmutational alchemy, the Rosarium Philosophorum from 1550. In the final part of my work, I will discuss these findings with regard to present discourses on innovation. Furthermore, I will elaborate on the distinction between a performative material philosophy of creation and a text and output oriented logo-centric philosophy by following the historic terminology of “fire philosophy” on the one hand and “book philosophy” on the other.

Participants:
Dr. Sabine Baier
Prof. Dr. Michael Hampe