Classical element

Hellenistic philosophy

Ancient classic element systems Classical elements in Greece

The ancient Greek concept of four basic elements, these being earth (γῆ grc), water (ὕδωρ grc), air (ἀήρ grc), and fire (πῦρ grc), dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, deeply influencing European thought and culture.

Pre-Socratic elements

Primordial element

Fire, earth, air, and water

Main article: Empedocles#Philosophy

The Greek philosopher Empedocles () was the first to propose the four classical elements as a set: fire, earth, air, and water. He called them the four "roots" (ῥιζώματα, grc). Empedocles also proved (at least to his own satisfaction) that air was a separate substance by observing that a bucket inverted in water did not become filled with water, a pocket of air remaining trapped inside.

Fire, earth, air, and water have become the most popular set of classical elements in modern interpretations. One such version was provided by Robert Boyle in The Sceptical Chymist, which was published in 1661 in the form of a dialogue between five characters. Themistius, the Aristotelian of the party, says:

Humorism (Hippocrates)

According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates () in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), blood (air), and phlegm (water). Medical care was primarily about helping the patient stay in or return to their own personal natural balanced state.

Plato

Plato (428/423 – 348/347 BC) seems to have been the first to use the term "element (στοιχεῖον, grc)" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water. The ancient Greek word for element, grc (from grc, "to line up") meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed.

Aristotle

In On the Heavens (350 BC), Aristotle defines "element" in general:

In his On Generation and Corruption, Aristotle related each of the four elements to two of the four sensible qualities:

• Fire is both hot and dry.
• Air is both hot and wet (for air is like vapour, ἀτμὶς).
• Water is both cold and wet.
• Earth is both cold and dry.

A classic diagram has one square inscribed in the other, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties. The opposite corner is the opposite of these properties, "hot – cold" and "dry – wet".

Aether

Aristotle added a fifth element, aether (αἰθήρ grc), as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air, and water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance. It had previously been believed by pre-Socratics such as Empedocles and Anaxagoras that aether, the name applied to the material of heavenly bodies, was a form of fire. Aristotle himself did not use the term aether for the fifth element, and strongly criticised the pre-Socratics for associating the term with fire. He preferred a number of other terms indicating eternal movement, thus emphasising the evidence for his discovery of a new element. These five elements have been associated since Plato's Timaeus with the five platonic solids. Earth was associated with the cube, air with the octahedron, water with the icosahedron, and fire with the tetrahedron. Of the fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, Plato obscurely remarked, "...the god used [it] for arranging the constellations on the whole heaven". Aristotle added a fifth element, aither (aether in Latin, "ether" in English) and postulated that the heavens were made of this element, but he had no interest in matching it with Plato's fifth solid.

Neo-Platonism

The Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus rejected Aristotle's theory relating the elements to the sensible qualities hot, cold, wet, and dry. He maintained that each of the elements has three properties. Fire is sharp (ὀξυτητα), subtle (λεπτομερειαν), and mobile (εὐκινησιαν) while its opposite, earth, is blunt (αμβλυτητα), dense (παχυμερειαν), and immobile (ακινησιαν); they are joined by the intermediate elements, air and water, in the following fashion:

Hermeticism

Classical elements in Egypt A text written in Egypt in Hellenistic or Roman times called the Kore Kosmou ("Virgin of the World") ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus (associated with the Egyptian god Thoth), names the four elements fire, water, air, and earth. As described in this book:

Manichaeism

The Five Elements (Amahraspandān) occupy a central place in Manichaean cosmogony. They are portrayed as the five sons of the “First Man” (Ohrmizdbag): Ether (Frāwahr), Wind (Wād), Light (Rōšn), Water (Āb), and Fire (Ādur). These elements also constitute the armor of the First Man.

Ancient Indian philosophy

Hinduism

Classical elements in Hinduism The 5 Elements of Nature Main article: Mahābhūta#Hinduism, Pancha Bhuta

The system of five elements are found in Vedas, especially Ayurveda, the pancha mahabhuta, or "five great elements", of Hinduism are:

1. bhūmi or pṛthvī (earth),
2. āpas or jala (water),
3. agní or tejas (fire),
4. vāyu, vyāna, or vāta (air or wind)
5. ākāśa, vyom, or śūnya (space or zero) or (aether or void). They further suggest that all of creation, including the human body, is made of these five essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these five elements of nature, thereby balancing the cycle of nature.

The five elements are associated with the five senses, and act as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. The basest element, earth, created using all the other elements, can be perceived by all five senses — (i) hearing, (ii) touch, (iii) sight, (iv) taste, and (v) smell. The next higher element, water, has no odour but can be heard, felt, seen and tasted. Next comes fire, which can be heard, felt and seen. Air can be heard and felt. "Akasha" (aether) is beyond the senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch; it being accessible to the sense of hearing alone.

Buddhism

Buddhist elements Main article: Mahābhūta

Buddhism has had a variety of thought about the five elements and their existence and relevance, some of which continue to this day.

In the Pali literature, the mahabhuta ("great elements") or catudhatu ("four elements") are earth, water, fire and air. In early Buddhism, the four elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility, characterised as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively.

The Buddha's teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or energy content (fire). He promulgated a categorisation of mind and matter as composed of eight types of "kalapas" of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are colour, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997) renders an extract of Shakyamuni Buddha's from Pali into English thus:

Tibetan Buddhist medical literature speaks of the (five elements) or "elemental properties": earth, water, fire, wind, and space. The concept was extensively used in traditional Tibetan medicine. Tibetan Buddhist theology, tantra traditions, and "astrological texts" also spoke of them making up the "environment, [human] bodies," and at the smallest or "subtlest" level of existence, parts of thought and the mind. Also at the subtlest level of existence, the elements exist as "pure natures represented by the five female buddhas", Ākāśadhātviśvarī, Buddhalocanā, Mamakī, Pāṇḍarāvasinī, and Samayatārā, and these pure natures "manifest as the physical properties of earth (solidity), water (fluidity), fire (heat and light), wind (movement and energy), and" the expanse of space. These natures exist as all "qualities" that are in the physical world and take forms in it.

Ancient African philosophy

Central Africa

In traditional Bakongo religion, the five elements are incorporated into the Kongo cosmogram. This sacred symbol also depicts the physical world (Nseke), the spiritual world of the ancestors (Mpémba), the Kalûnga line that runs between the two worlds, the circular void that originally formed the two worlds (mbûngi), and the path of the sun. Each element correlates to a period in the life cycle, which the Bakongo people also equate to the four cardinal directions. According to their cosmology, all living things go through this cycle.

• Aether represents mbûngi, the circular void that begot the universe.
• Air (South) represents musoni, the period of conception that takes place during spring.
• Fire (East) represent kala, the period of birth that takes place during summer.
• Earth (North) represents tukula, the period of maturity that takes place during fall.
• Water (West) represents luvemba, the period of death that takes place during winter

West Africa

In traditional Bambara spirituality, the Supreme God created four additional essences of himself during creation. Together, these five essences of the deity correlate with the five classical elements.

• Koni is the thought and void (aether).
• Bemba (also called Pemba) is the god of the sky and air.
• Nyale (also called Koroni Koundyé) is the goddess of fire.
• Faro is the androgynous god of water.
• Ndomadyiri is the god and master of the earth.

Post-classical history

Alchemy

Elements in Medieval alchemy

The elemental system used in medieval alchemy was developed primarily by the anonymous authors of the Arabic works attributed to Pseudo Apollonius of Tyana. This system consisted of the four classical elements of air, earth, fire, and water, in addition to a new theory called the sulphur-mercury theory of metals, which was based on two elements: sulphur, characterising the principle of combustibility, "the stone which burns"; and mercury, characterising the principle of metallic properties. They were seen by early alchemists as idealised expressions of irreducible components of the universe and are of larger consideration within philosophical alchemy.

The three metallic principles—sulphur to flammability or combustion, mercury to volatility and stability, and salt to solidity—became the tria prima of the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. He reasoned that Aristotle's four element theory appeared in bodies as three principles. Paracelsus saw these principles as fundamental and justified them by recourse to the description of how wood burns in fire. Mercury included the cohesive principle, so that when it left in smoke the wood fell apart. Smoke described the volatility (the mercurial principle), the heat-giving flames described flammability (sulphur), and the remnant ash described solidity (salt).

Chinese

Main article: Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)

Chinese traditional concepts adopt a set of elements called the 五行 (wuxing, literally "five phases"). These five are Metal or Gold (金 Jīn), Wood (木 Mù), Water (水 Shuǐ), Fire (火 Huǒ), and Earth or Soil (土 Tǔ). These can be linked to Taiji, Yinyang, Four Symbols, Bagua, Hexagram and I Ching.

• Gold (West) represents the young yin symbol, autumn, the white colour, and White Tiger mascot, Taotie creature (Earth).
• Wood (East) represents the young yang symbol, spring, the green colour, and Azure Dragon mascot, Feilian creature (Wind).
• Water (North) represents the old yin symbol, winter, the black colour, and Black Turtle-Snake mascot.
• Fire (South) represents the old yang symbol, summer, the red colour, and Vermilion Bird mascot.
• Soil (Center) represents the Qi symbol, intermediate season, the yellow colour, and Yellow Dragon mascot, Hundun creature (Void).

Japanese

Japanese elements

Main article: Godai (Japanese philosophy)

Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the 五大 (godai, literally "five great"). These five are earth, water, fire, wind/air, and void. These came from Indian Vastu shastra philosophy and Buddhist beliefs; in addition, the classical Chinese elements (五行, wu xing) are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the medieval Edo period.

• Earth (地 Chi) represented rocks and stability.
• Water (水 Sui) represented fluidity and adaptability.
• Fire (火 Ka) represented life and energy.
• Wind (風 Fuu) represented movement and expansion.
• Void (空 Kuu) or Sky/Heaven represented spirit and creative energy.

Medieval Aristotelian philosophy

The Islamic philosophers al-Kindi, Avicenna and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi followed Aristotle in connecting the four elements with the four natures heat and cold (the active force), and dryness and moisture (the recipients).

Medicine Wheel

The medicine wheel symbol is a modern invention attributed to Native American peoples dating to approximately 1972, with the following descriptions and associations being a later addition. The associations with the classical elements are not grounded in traditional Indigenous teachings and the symbol has not been adopted by all Indigenous American nations.

• Earth (South) represents the youth cycle, summer, the Indigenous race, and cedar medicine.
• Fire (East) represents the birth cycle, spring, the Asian race, and tobacco medicine.
• Wind/Air (North) represents the elder cycle, winter, the European race, and sweetgrass medicine.
• Water (West) represents the adulthood cycle, autumn, the African race, and sage medicine.

Modern history

Modern elements

Chemical element

The Aristotelian tradition and medieval alchemy eventually gave rise to modern chemistry, scientific theories and new taxonomies. By the time of Antoine Lavoisier, for example, a list of elements would no longer refer to classical elements. Some modern scientists see a parallel between the classical elements and the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas and weakly ionized plasma.

Modern science recognises classes of elementary particles which have no substructure (or rather, particles that are not made of other particles) and composite particles having substructure (particles made of other particles).

Western astrology

Elements in western astrology and tarot Main article: Astrology and the classical elements

Western astrology uses the four classical elements in connection with astrological charts and horoscopes. The twelve signs of the zodiac are divided into the four elements: Fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, Air signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, and Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

Criticism

The Dutch historian of science Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis writes that the theory of the classical elements "was bound to exercise a really harmful influence. As is now clear, Aristotle, by adopting this theory as the basis of his interpretation of nature and by never losing faith in it, took a course which promised few opportunities and many dangers for science." Bertrand Russell says that Aristotle's thinking became imbued with almost biblical authority in later centuries. So much so that "Ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century, almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine".

Notes

References

Bibliography

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