Read the excerpts of Paracelsus’s Hermetic and Alchemical Writings (beginning on P. 332) and explain Paracelsus’s doctrine of three ingredients and four elements. Discuss how this theory accounts for the claim by alchemists that all things can be transmuted into any other thing, if appropriately treated. Explain deductivism, making clear the role of metaphysical principles. How would a deductivist make sense of Paracelsus’s alchemical approach? What are the metaphysical principles he makes use of? Why, for example, does he add a third basic ingredient? Is there any part of Paracelsus’s work that does not fit well into the deductivists’ picture of the scientific method?
