Is European alchemy medieval science?

Question

I need to argue pro or con, considering developments connected to the period from 800 to 1500 CE.

Answer 1

No, not in the way most people think. They weren't trying to make gold "to get rich". European alchemy is first and foremost Hermetic science. That is, it is applied Hermetic philosophy. It is so aggravating to see so few people understand this, and then make judgments about alchemy while being completely ignorant of this simple fact.

Whether you buy into Hermetic philosophy or not, alchemy is inseparable from it, in the same way Chinese alchemy is inseparable from Taoism, and Hindu alchemy inspararable from Vedic philosophy.

The idea of transmutation is that alchemists believed that they were "speeding up" natural processes. So lead is unripe gold according to their way of seeing things. Since gold is the noblest and most perfect of metals, all metals are moving towards becoming gold. The transmutation is just to prove that one had indeed made the Stone, which holds the secret of this ripening process.

Mysticism is inevitably involved, since what then is human consciousness moving toward? What is the perfection of human consciousness? And what does this have to do with our relationship to God? And God's relationship to Nature?

Answer 2

Alchemists tried to find ways to help people live forever, and they were highly turning lead into gold (for obvious reasons). They didn't succeed, but along the way they did learn a lot about chemistry.

In the middle ages alchemy was seen as the fundamental science for the investigation of nature. The alchemists considered experiments and observation as the true keys to nature, but they also had the belief in a universe unified through the relationship of the macrocosm and the microcosm, that is a connection of alchemy and astrology.

Religion played a role too: the alchemists were convinced that their search for the truths of nature was religious in nature, resulting  in a greater knowledge of the Creator.

Alchemists tried to find ways to help people live forever, and they were especially interested in turning lead into gold (so they could get rich). They never were able to do that, but along the way they did learn a lot about chemistry.

So I would say that there were elements of modern science in alchemy, but it is also true that this was a study filled permeated with a mysticism foreign to the post-Newtonian science. That said, Newton himself considered himself to be an alchemist.