Plato on chemistry

It is a notion commonly acknowledged that in his work Timaeus the Athenian philosopher Plato (c. 429-347 BC) laid down an early chemical theory of the creation, structure and phenomena of the universe. There is much truth in this acknowledgement because Plato's chemistry gives a description of the material world in mathematical terms, an approach that marks an outstanding advancement over cosmologic doctrines put forward by his predecessors, and which was very influential on western culture for many centuries. In the present article, I discuss inter-transformations among Plato's four types (fire, air, water, and earth) as well as the interpretation they received in the literature. I find that scientists and scholars generally emphasized (and often misunderstood) mathematical aspects of these reactions over the philosophical ones. I argue that Plato's chemistry in fact bears on crucial topics of his philosophical system, such as Forms, Becoming, causation and teleology. I propose that consideration of these doctrines help to understand not only the sense of his chemical reactions, but also the reason why their stoichiometry is by surface balance and is restricted only to types that come to be and pass away but not to those that provoke the inter-transformations.

Automated summary

This article discusses Plato's chemical reactions and their philosophical implications in his work Timaeus. Plato's chemistry describes the material world in mathematical terms, which had a significant influence on Western culture. However, scholars often only focus on the mathematical aspects of these reactions, overlooking their philosophical significance.