Kirjahaku

Only comparatively have historians begun to recognize the importance and influence of Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579-1644) in the history of medicine and chemistry. Van Helmont's theories on the nature of life, biological time, physiology and disease, the structure of matter, and the processes of chemical change are veiled in his writings by a brand of Renaissance mysticism rendering them obscure to the modern reader. His organic conception of the natural world, together with his belief in alchemy and astral forces, has resulted in a predominantly unsympathetic attitude among historians of science, by whom he is generally regarded as a mystic purveying an unpalatable and inherently 'unscientific' amalgam of medicine and philosophy. Attitudes are now changing. Thinkers of the Van Helmont type are at last receiving the sympathetic attention they deserve. Dr Pagel is a pioneer in this field, and he now demonstrates that by painstaking analysis it is possible to appreciate the creative insights of a figure like Van Helmont. Dr Pagel's book is a model of its kind, and it is the culmination of many years of reflection on the topics discussed.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfängen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen für die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfügung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden müssen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.