The Pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone: Is It a Pure Endeavour to Perfect Nature, or a Corrupt Endeavour for Control?
Posted: January 29th, 2025, 8:44 pm
This topic is about the January 2025 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Riddle of Alchemy by Paul Kiritsis
AI Prompt : A lady holding the philosopher's stone
freepik__the-style-is-candid-image-photography-with-natural__65954.png (1.15 MiB) Viewed 117 times
The philosopher's stone was an obsession that the alchemists used to search for in a certain era, which they believed had the power to turn any metal into gold and the purest of all substances. Although they did not find it, it paved the way to subject areas like chemistry, metallurgy, and pharmacology.
From a philosophical viewpoint, what we can see is the need of those alchemists to have the power over controlling the very nature of metal, and it is doubtful whether they wanted it to enhance the nature and let humankind have its benefits. Even today we see scientists and investors chasing after modern philosopher's stones, like AI, genetic engineering, quantum computing, etc. But it is highly possible that the core idea and the target of these pursuits are the same as those of the ancient era alchemists; the power over control.
What do you think? If humans were able to achieve one of these modern (or even the good old) philosopher's stones, will it be used for the betterment of all the human beings?
If you get the philosopher's stone, what will you change into gold? Why?
freepik__the-style-is-candid-image-photography-with-natural__65954.png (1.15 MiB) Viewed 117 times
The philosopher's stone was an obsession that the alchemists used to search for in a certain era, which they believed had the power to turn any metal into gold and the purest of all substances. Although they did not find it, it paved the way to subject areas like chemistry, metallurgy, and pharmacology.
From a philosophical viewpoint, what we can see is the need of those alchemists to have the power over controlling the very nature of metal, and it is doubtful whether they wanted it to enhance the nature and let humankind have its benefits. Even today we see scientists and investors chasing after modern philosopher's stones, like AI, genetic engineering, quantum computing, etc. But it is highly possible that the core idea and the target of these pursuits are the same as those of the ancient era alchemists; the power over control.
What do you think? If humans were able to achieve one of these modern (or even the good old) philosopher's stones, will it be used for the betterment of all the human beings?
If you get the philosopher's stone, what will you change into gold? Why?