Editing Classical element (section)

== Hellenistic philosophy ==
{{Platonism}}
{{anchor|Ancient classic element systems}}
{{anchor|Classical elements in Greece}}<!-- This section is linked from [[Democritus]] -->
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|Aristotelian elements and qualities
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[[File:Four elements representation.svg|center|200px|Four classical elements]]
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''Empedoclean elements''
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[[File:Fire symbol (alchemical).svg|20px|🜂]] [[Fire (classical element)|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fire]] {{·}}
[[File:Air symbol (alchemical).svg|20px|🜁]] [[Air (classical element)|air&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;]] <br />
[[File:Water symbol (alchemical).svg|20px|🜄]] [[Water (classical element)|water]] {{·}}
[[File:Alchemical earth symbol (fixed width).svg|20px|🜃]] [[Earth (classical element)|earth]]

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The [[History of science in classical antiquity#Pre-Socratic philosophers|ancient Greek]] concept of four basic elements, these being earth ({{lang|grc|γῆ}}  {{transliteration|grc|gê}}), water ({{lang|grc|ὕδωρ}} {{transliteration|grc|hýdōr}}), air ({{lang|grc|ἀήρ}} {{transliteration|grc|aḗr}}), and fire ({{lang|grc|πῦρ}} {{transliteration|grc|pŷr}}), dates from [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic]] times and persisted throughout the [[Middle Ages]] and into the [[Early modern period]], deeply influencing [[Europe]]an thought and culture.{{sfnp|Curd|2020}}

=== Pre-Socratic elements ===

==== Water, air, or fire? ====
[[File:Four Classical Elements in Burning Log.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|The four classical elements of [[Empedocles]] and [[Aristotle]] illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed.]]{{Main|Thales of Miletus#Water as the arche|Anaximenes of Miletus#Air as the arche|Heraclitus#Fire as the arche|Anaximander#Theories}}The classical elements were first proposed independently by several early Pre-Socratic philosophers.{{sfnp|Ross|2020}} Greek philosophers had debated which substance was the ''[[arche]]'' ("first principle"), or primordial element from which everything else was made. [[Thales]] ({{circa|626/623|548/545 BC}}) believed that water was this principle. [[Anaximander]] ({{circa|610|546 BC}}) argued that the primordial substance was not any of the known substances, but could be transformed into them, and they into each other.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=46}}{{sfnp|Curd|2020}} [[Anaximenes of Miletus|Anaximenes]] ({{circa|586|526 BC}}) favored air, and [[Heraclitus]] (<abbr>fl.</abbr> {{circa|500 BC}}) championed fire.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=61}}

==== Fire, earth, air, and water ====
{{Main|Empedocles#Philosophy}}
The [[Magna Graecia|Greek]] philosopher [[Empedocles]] ({{circa|450 BC}}) was the first to propose the four classical elements as a set: fire, earth, air, and water.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|pp=62, 75}} He called them the four "roots" ({{lang|grc|ῥιζώματα}}, {{transliteration|grc|rhizōmata}}). 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.{{sfnp|Russell|1991|p=72}}

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 [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] of the party, says:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Robert |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22914/22914-h/22914-h.htm |title=The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject |publisher=Printed by J. Cadwell for J. Crooke |year=1661 |pages=21–22}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=If You but consider a piece of green-Wood burning in a Chimney, You will readily discern in the disbanded parts of it the four Elements, of which we teach It and other mixt bodies to be compos'd. The fire discovers it self in the flame ... the smoke by ascending to the top of the chimney, and there readily vanishing into air ... manifests to what Element it belongs and gladly returnes. The water ... boyling and hissing at the ends of the burning Wood betrayes it self ... and the ashes by their weight, their firiness, and their dryness, put it past doubt that they belong to the Element of Earth.}}

=== Humorism (Hippocrates) ===
[[File:Hippocrates (Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens).jpg|alt=An engraving of Hippocrates by Peter Paul Rubens, 1638|thumb|158x158px|Hippocrates]]
According to [[Galen]], these elements were used by [[Hippocrates]] ({{circa|460|370 BC}}) in describing the [[human body]] with an association with the [[Humorism|four humours]]: yellow [[bile]] (fire), [[Melancholia|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lindemann |first=Mary |title=Medicine and Society in early Modern Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-73256-7 |page=19}}</ref>

=== Plato ===
[[File:Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377 (cropped).jpg|alt=Head bust of Plato|thumb|211x211px|Plato]]
[[Plato]] (428/423 – 348/347 BC) seems to have been the first to use the term "element ({{lang|grc|στοιχεῖον}}, {{transliteration|grc|stoicheîon}})" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water.<ref>{{Citation |last=Plato |title=Timaeus |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Tim.+48b |at=48b}}</ref>  The ancient Greek word for element, {{transliteration|grc|stoicheion}} (from {{transliteration|grc|stoicheo}}, "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 ===
[[File:Statue_at_the_Aristotle_University_of_Thessaloniki_(cropped).jpg|alt=Statue at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki|thumb|205x205px|Aristotle]]
In ''[[On the Heavens]]'' (350 BC), Aristotle defines "element" in general:<ref>{{Citation |last1=Weisberg |first1=M. |title=Philosophy of Chemistry |date=2019 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/chemistry/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=E. N. |edition=Spring 2019 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |last2=Needham |first2=P. |last3=Hendry |first3=R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aristotle |url=https://archive.org/details/onheavens0000aris/page/283/mode/1up?view=theater |title=On the Heavens |year=1922 |pages=3.3, 302a17–19 |translator-last=Stocks |translator-first=J. L. |orig-date=350 BCE}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|An element, we take it, is a body into which other bodies may be analysed, present in them potentially or in actuality (which of these, is still disputable), and not itself divisible into bodies different in form. That, or something like it, is what all men in every case mean by element.<ref>{{Citation |author=Aristotle |title=[[On the Heavens]] |at=III.3.302a17–19 |author-link=Aristotle |translator-last=Stocks |translator-first=J.L.}}</ref>|author=Aristotle|title=On the Heavens|source=Book III, Chapter III}}

In his ''[[On Generation and Corruption]]'',<ref>{{cite wikisource |author=Aristotle |wslink=Περί Γενέσεως και Φθοράς/2 |anchor=Κεφάλαιο 3 |wslanguage=el |quote={{lang|grc|τὸ μὲν γὰρ πῦρ θερμὸν καὶ ξηρόν, ὁ δ' ἀὴρ θερμὸν καὶ ὑγρόν (οἷον ἀτμὶς γὰρ ὁ ἀήρ), τὸ δ' ὕδωρ ψυχρὸν καὶ ὑγρόν, ἡ δὲ γῆ ψυχρὸν καὶ ξηρόν}}}}</ref>{{sfnp|Lloyd|1968|pp=166–169}} Aristotle related each of the four elements to two of the four sensible qualities:
* [[Fire (classical element)|'''Fire''']] is both hot and dry.
* [[Air (classical element)|'''Air''']] is both hot and wet (for air is like vapor, {{lang|grc|ἀτμὶς}}).
* [[Water (classical element)|'''Water''']] is both cold and wet.
* [[Earth (classical element)|'''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 (classical element)#Fifth element|aether]] ({{lang|grc|αἰθήρ}} {{transliteration|grc|aither}}), 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 [[star]]s cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.{{sfnp|Lloyd|1968|pp=[https://archive.org/details/aristotlegrowths0000lloy/page/133 133–139]}} 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.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1971 |chapter=Aristotle's analysis of change and Plato's theory of Transcendent Ideas |publisher=SUNY Press |last=Chung-Hwan |first=Chen |author-link=Chen Chung-hwan |editor-last=Anton |editor-first=John P. |volume=2 |pages=406–407 |isbn=0873956230 |editor2-first=Anthony |editor2-last=Preus |title=Ancient Greek Philosophy}}.</ref> These five elements have been associated since Plato's [[Timaeus (dialogue)|''Timaeus'']] with the five [[platonic solid]]s. 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, [[aether (classical 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.<ref>Wildberg (1988): Wildberg discusses the correspondence of the Platonic solids with elements in ''Timaeus'' but notes that this correspondence appears to have been forgotten in ''[[Epinomis]]'', which he calls "a long step towards Aristotle's theory", and he points out that Aristotle's ether is above the other four elements rather than on an equal footing with them, making the correspondence less apposite.</ref>

=== 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 ([[wikt:ὀξύτης|ὀξυτητα]]), subtle ([[wikt:λεπτομέρεια|λεπτομερειαν]]), and mobile ([[wikt:εὐκινησία|εὐκινησιαν]]) while its opposite, earth, is blunt ([[wikt:αμβλύτητα|αμβλυτητα]]), dense ([[wikt:παχύς|παχυμερειαν]]), and immobile ([[wikt:ακίνητος|ακινησιαν]]<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Siorvanes |first=Lucas |date=1986 |title=Proclus on the Elements and the Celestial Bodies: Physical Thought in Late Neoplatonism |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1317977/1/311636.pdf |page=168 |access-date=}}</ref>); they are joined by the intermediate elements, air and water, in the following fashion:<ref>{{Citation |author=Proclus |title=Commentary on Plato's ''Timaeus'' |at=3.38.1–3.39.28}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:240px; height:135px;"
|-
! Fire 
| style="background: pink" | Sharp ||  style="background: pink" | Subtle ||  style="background: pink" | Mobile
|-
! Air 
| style="background: lightgreen" | Blunt ||  style="background: pink" | Subtle ||  style="background: pink" | Mobile
|-
! Water 
| style="background: lightgreen" | Blunt || style="background: lightgreen" | Dense ||  style="background: pink" | Mobile
|-
! Earth 
| style="background: lightgreen" | Blunt || style="background: lightgreen" | Dense || style="background: lightgreen" | Immobile
|}

=== Hermeticism ===
{{anchor|Classical elements in Egypt}}
A text written in Egypt in [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Hellenistic]] or [[Roman Egypt|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:

{{blockquote|And Isis answer made: Of living things, my son, some are made friends with ''fire'', and some with ''water'', some with ''air'', and some with ''earth'', and some with two or three of these, and some with all. And, on the contrary, again some are made enemies of fire, and some of water, some of earth, and some of air, and some of two of them, and some of three, and some of all. For instance, son, the locust and all flies flee fire; the eagle and the hawk and all high-flying birds flee water; fish, air and earth; the snake avoids the open air. Whereas snakes and all creeping things love earth; all swimming things love water; winged things, air, of which they are the citizens; while those that fly still higher love the fire and have the habitat near it. Not that some of the animals as well do not love fire; for instance salamanders, for they even have their homes in it. It is because one or another of the elements doth form their bodies' outer envelope. Each [[soul]], accordingly, while it is in its body is weighted and constricted by these four.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mead |first=G. R. S. |author-link=G. R. S.  Mead |title=Thrice-Greatest Hermes |volume=3 |date=1906 |place=London & Benares |publisher=The Theosophical Publishing Society |pages=133–134  |oclc=76743923 }}</ref>
}}