Gnose et expérience dans la philosophie chimique de Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont

" Gnosis and experience in the chemical philosophy of Van Helmont " Recent research on Van Helmont has shown that his chemical philosophy cannot be separated from his Paracelsian theory of knowledge. Against the Aristotelian way of investigation, Van Helmont recommends the joined use of illuminist interpretation of the Holy Scripture and laboratory experience. When applied to the constitutive elements of matter, this method leads him to a dualistic system (air and water) where elementary water is subjected to the action of ferments and seeds (semina ).