Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="squibbles" data-source="post: 8454651" data-attributes="member: 6937590">Point conceded, very similar.But even if Hermetic alchemy is has the big "T" Truth, that doesn't make it scientific.The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeticism" target="_blank">Wikipedia article on Hermeticism</a> has this nugget:"Throughout its history, Hermeticism was closely associated with the idea of a primeval, divine wisdom, revealed only to the most ancient of sages, such as Hermes Trismegistus. In the Renaissance, this developed into the notion of a prisca theologia or "ancient theology", which asserted that there is a single, true theology which was given by God to some of the first humans, and traces of which may still be found in various ancient systems of thought."So, though hermetic-alchemy-wielding wizards may have the universe figured out (and in my cynical headcannon, they only think they do), their means of knowing are based at least in part on revelation. That's qualitatively different from science, even if the scientific method is sometimes employed. (btw science might not even have a monopoly on "T"ruth IRL, there's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYp5XuGYqqY" target="_blank">super interesting TED talk</a> about how limited human perceptions undermine scientific empiricism as an epistemology)Incidentally, no offense meant to any of those disciplines. They're just the ones that came to mind as examples of academics who use rationality and logic but not necessarily the scientific method (and I probably don't know enough about Jungian psychology to make that judgment in its case).Plenty of academic disciplines are not science, but are still worthwhile.And of course, if learning one lets you fly and shoot fireballs, well...</blockquote>

Verification