Axioms, Essences, and Mostly Clean Hands: Preparing to Teach Chemistry with Libavius and Aristotle

Abstract

Andreas Libavius' (c. 1555-1616) three part collection of letters, the Rerum chymicarum epistolica forma . . . liber (1595-1599) is a particularly important text in fashioning the subject of chemistry as a demonstrative science and as a didactic discipline. Where Libavius' Alchemia, which some have claimed to be the first textbook of chemistry, had mostly a humanist agenda, the Rerum chymicarum . . . liber more directly sought to wrest the subject of ''chemistry'' away from Paracelsian adepts, and established the methodological basis for a specific form of knowledge suitable to the university. Making use of Aristotle's Posterior analytics Libavius created a ''floor-plan'' for chemistry that integrated practical experience with natural philosophy, and could thus, he claimed, penetrate more deeply into the structure of nature than other academic disciplines.

On ideas of evolution and the evolution of ideas: communicating traditions of scientific enquiry

“…Previous contributions to this broader canvass of the role which intellectual traditions play in shaping theory development and understanding have often failed to identify the educational prospects emergent from such insights. Sporadic contributions which have dallied with the pedagogic implications of how scientific endeavour is viewed by scientists (notable examples of which have come from Moran, 2006 andMaxwell, 2012) have recently been enriched by clear calls for educators to better incorporate understandings of the nature of science and epistemology in their curricula (Sandoval, 2014).…”