Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature [Paperback]

William R. Newman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0226575241 | ISBN-13: 978-0226575247

In Promethean Ambitions, William R. Newman uses alchemy as a means to discuss the thinning boundary between the natural and the artificial. Focusing primarily on the period between 1200 and 1700, Newman examines the labors of pioneering alchemists and the impassioned—and often negative—responses to their efforts. Newman also shows that alchemy was not an unformed and capricious precursor to chemistry; it was an art founded on coherent philosophical and empirical principles—with vocal supporters and even louder critics—that attracted individuals of first-rate intellect. The historical relationship that he charts here between human creation and nature has innumerable implications today. Promethean Ambitions ably imbues a millennium-old scientific and ethical debate with modern relevance.

"With close attention to historical and textual detail that is never less than engaging, Newman unpacks the historical accidents and political machinations that led to alchemy's marginalization, bringing sympathy, wit and imagination to his account."—Simon Ings, New Scientist

"Newman chooses the fascinating topic of alchemy as his case study in the long history of human efforts to breach the barriers between nature and human artifice. . . . A thought-provoking book."—Iwan Rhys Morus, Science

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With close attention to historical and textual detail that is never less than engaging, Newman unpacks the historical accidents and political machinations that led to alchemy's marginalization, bringing sympathy, wit, and imagination to his account." - Simon Ings, New Scientist "Newman chooses the fascinating topic of alchemy as his case study in the long history of human efforts to breach the barriers between nature and human artifice....A thought-provoking book." - Iwan Rhys Morus, Science "Newman argues [that] the methods and ideas of modern science, including concepts of experimentation, far from breaking with alchemical researches, evolved out of them....Newman, a clear and graceful writer, keeps his goal in view. He is an initiate - tapping, testing, and transmuting - until something different, still called alchemy, gradually takes shape." - Edward Rothstein, New York Times"

From the Inside Flap

In an age when the nature of reality is complicated daily by advances in bioengineering, cloning, and artificial intelligence, it is easy to forget that the ever-evolving boundary between nature and technology has long been a source of ethical and scientific concern: modern anxieties about the possibility of artificial life and the dangers of tinkering with nature more generally were shared by opponents of alchemy long before genetic science delivered us a cloned sheep named Dolly.

In Promethean Ambitions, William R. Newman ambitiously uses alchemy to investigate the thinning boundary between the natural and the artificial. Focusing primarily on the period between 1200 and 1700, Newman examines the labors of pioneering alchemists and the impassioned—and often negative—responses to their efforts. By the thirteenth century, Newman argues, alchemy had become a benchmark for determining the abilities of both men and demons, representing the epitome of creative power in the natural world. Newman frames the art-nature debate by contrasting the supposed transmutational power of alchemy with the merely representational abilities of the pictorial and plastic arts—a dispute which found artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Bernard Palissy attacking alchemy as an irreligious fraud. The later assertion by the Paracelsian school that one could make an artificial human being—the homunculus—led to further disparagement of alchemy, but as Newman shows, the immense power over nature promised by the field contributed directly to the technological apologetics of Francis Bacon and his followers. By the mid-seventeenth century, the famous "father of modern chemistry," Robert Boyle, was employing the arguments of medieval alchemists to support the identity of naturally occurring substances with those manufactured by "chymical" means.

In using history to highlight the art-nature debate, Newman here shows that alchemy was not an unformed and capricious precursor to chemistry; it was an art founded on coherent philosophical and empirical principles, with vocal supporters and even louder critics, that attracted individuals of first-rate intellect. The historical relationship that Newman charts between human creation and nature has innumerable implications today, and he ably links contemporary issues to alchemical debates on the natural versus the artificial.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226575241
• ISBN-13: 978-0226575247
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #870,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the effort & study, July 12, 2006

By 

Micah Nilsson "al-qemi" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature (Hardcover)

I greatly enjoyed this excellent book, even though it was quite an undertaking to really absorb. It's a book you'll read a bit, then think about, then come back to, working though it and letting each bit you take in trickle through your consciousness before you move on.

As a practicing Alchemist myself, I especially enjoyed the clear explanation of our Western philosophical lineage and the Hermetic tradition that stretches back to the Greeks and before. Whether we realize it or not, here in the US at least, we are educated in this tradition, and think a certain way because of it; the tendency to look to the East for all things spiritual is unfortunate when we have so, so much native to our own culture. This book brings that line right down through the ages, and made me see that I have many more "ancestors" than I thought!

The main theme of the book, Alchemy as the language and arena for the discussion of Art and Nature, is also brought to more modern relevance than might be expected, and examining our scientific heritage through that lens is very useful philosophically. After reading this book, when I hear debates about genetic modification, artificial intelligence, and the like, I realize that these discussions have been taking place for centuries, and the ancients' explorations of these questions have much to teach us now.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars most accessible text from the top alchemy scholar, October 10, 2007

By 

Albert Hand "student-teacher of alchemical arts" (northern CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature (Paperback)

William Newman is one of the most knowledgeable experts and a key pioneer in alchemical studies, and this is his most readable, engaging, and socially relevant book. Those who wish to learn about the history of alchemy should start here, and will find references to the next logical steps in the study, but this book is also important for those who wish to understand more about the way our culture understands life using science. Many urgent issues in the philosophy of biology and medical ethics have long been the province of alchemists, which Newman demonstrates with clarity and grace, and anybody interested in these topics will find much of deep interest here. Buy it as a present for any educated person who doesn't understand why people should study Alchemy. Encourage your library to carry a copy. Well worth the price of admission.