Os argumentos de Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) contra o elemento fogo

Abstract

In this work, we analyze Girolamo Cardano's (1501-1576) argument present in his De subtilitate, Book II, dedicated to questioning the existence of four elements. According to Cardano, fire should no longer be considered an element, but only earth, water and air. We have considered most of the arguments discussed in his work, but our focus is mainly on the one in which Cardano used the distillation process to deny fire a place among the elements. To achieve our goals, we have also consulted two other works by the author, De rerum varietate and De secretis. In De rerum varietate we found studies on fire and distillation, which are relevant to our analysis. In De secretis, we identified Cardano's considerations on the way he investigated questions on natural philosophy. Among other discussions, we tried to highlight that Cardano united theory and practice in his investigations, which reflected a well-determined context of a more operative “science”, marked by natural magic