Alchemy and the Problems of Modern Science
How our biases and expectations keep shaping our results
The 16th century was a turbulent time for Europe. With Luther’s reformation and Henry’s separation of the English from the Catholic Church (the original Brexit, if you will), the hold Rome had on Europe for a thousand years was starting to dissipate, and with it the force that had held all the different powers of the continent in check.
The Copernican evolution was likewise underfoot. Humankind’s place in the universe and relationship with the universe was being renegotiated, and new modes of inquiry into the world were being discovered.
The original Doctor Faustus
One of the time’s most colorful and influential figures was John Dee: as a mathematician, navigator, spy, magician, alchemist, and counselor to Queen Elizabeth of England, Dee was of lasting influence in a number of ways. Maybe his biggest political contribution was to convince Queen Elizabeth to build a naval fleet, and to develop a plan to reconquer the whole world and institute a framework based on a modernized, Protestant form of Christianity.
Following Elizabeth’s execution of Dee’s plan, the Catholic Spanish fleet vanquished at the shores of Britain in 1588, and the British would rule the…
