The origins of modern science, what we call today the “Scientific Revolution,” the period of time that originated modern science (what we assume to be a rational, experimental activity) were rooted in what we would call “irrational” subjects of the occult sciences such as alchemy, astrology, and Pythagorean number mysticism. How did the occult sciences influence the course of natural philosophy from 1500 to 1700? Give specific examples from Copernicus through Isaac Newton to illustrate.

     While many would like to disregard the influence that occult sciences have on modern hard sciences like chemistry and physics, the fact of the matter is that without them, many of our modern notions lack foundation.  Occult sciences, such as alchemy, astrology, and Pythagorean number mysticism, just to mention a few, are often classified as "pseudo-science," emphasizing their roles as "science-like," but simply unworthy of being considered in the vast tradition we typically associate with mathematical hypothesis and experimentation. 

    The majority of what would become known as the occult sciences originate prior to the classial period.  Alchemy, for example, has roots in Egpyt, as evidenced by its earliest known texts the Leiden and Stockholm Papyri. Their philosophical aspects, however, did not really come into play until Aristotle.  He distinguished the properties of matter as being either occult or manifest.  Manifest properties, were properties that could be readily perceived by the senses, like color or taste. Occult, from the Latin occultus, means "hidden."  Hidden properties, on the other hand, were attributes that could not be seen or perceived through the senses, such as magnetism or medicinal power. 

     Often described as a “breath of life,” the pneuma (or spiritus, as it was referred to in Latin), was a particular occult property.  Initially concepted by the Stoics, it was an invisible material, a curious combination of physical and spiritual substances akin to air and celestial fire.  It flowed through all forms of life, becoming, as Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs describes, “finer and more active as one ascends the scale of being, and the (more corporeal) air decreases as the (less corporeal) fire increases" (Dobbs 318).  For alchemists, this hot breath, so to speak, was the active principle through which change among metals was possible.  All base metals were on the sub-terrestrial journey to becoming gold, the perfect metal. Gold, representing perfection among metals, possessed the greatest abundance of the non-corporeal, finely woven aspect of pneuma.  By being a more “subtile” substance, it could pervade the metal more thoroughly.  Furthering this assumption, a pure physical embodiment of this subtle spirit could permeate any other body and rid it of its corruptions.  This concept in particular pervaded all manner of natural philosophy, including classical medicine, alchemy, and cosmology.  As such, it carried on in these traditions until the "Scientific Revolution," in which the idea of occultus properties began to be disregarded, though not forgotten.

     Natural philosophy in 16th and 17th century Europe saw a shift away from the classical matter theory of Aristotle. The new age of mechanical philosophers, as they called themselves, endeavored to do away with all occult properites and explain phenomena only by means of physical corpuscular reactions.  William Harvey, through autopsy and physical experimentation, expelled any notion of various secretive humours that ran through the body.  Instead he displayed the body as a machine, the heart a mechanical bellows that pumps blood through valves and pathways through the force of its motions.  Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler all used the power of mathematics and telescopic observation to bring the celestial realm and the terrestrial realms together from their strict separation by Aristotilean philosphy.  The celestial realm was no longer mystical but operated under a known (hypothesized) set of physical rules.  Even the inclusion of naturalism into the picture led to the exclusion of possibly the greatest of the occult: God.      Not to demean the religion of the time, but by definition God's actions were simply unknown; His method of creating the universe as well as what actions He was performing.  Mechanical philosophy did not seek to remove God from philosophy but eventually, by seeking natural causes to all phenomena, removed God from the minds of scientists as a natural cause to many of these phenomena.  God still existed to many of the scientists, but He could no longer be used to explain natural causes since that would require admitting an unknown.

      Of course, even with this shift, occult properites did not simply disappear. On the contrary, they simply became manifested in different forms.  Paracelsus, a 16th Century German medical mystic, traveled around Europe accumulating knowledge and teaching the essential talent of taking power over nature for the use of medicine.  According to Paracelsus, there were hidden or occult sympathies between the body and nature (certain herbs and/or metals) that one needed to discover in order to appropriately address medical conditions.  What he also stressed was a practical knowledge of nature which would lead to discovering the occult sympathies.  This practical approach was in conflict with the Aristotelean and Galenic approach to medicine and knowledge in general.  The practical experimentation of Paracelsus' methods is also what persisted most from his methodology.  The occult properties of his philosophy would not gain widespread popularity, but the experimental and practical approach would spread throughout medicine.  

     Even the greatest scientists of the 17th and 18th century, including Isaac Newton, studied and were involved in the pursuit of what we consider to be "pseduo-sciences."  Because of Newton's ever meticulous nature, we have enormous amounts of writing in his hand on the subject of alchemy, both of his own study and transcribed from other works.  He was involved in an exchange of information on the subject with two other very prominent historical philosphers; Robert Boyle and John Locke.  Newton's works reveal alchemical influences if one knows where to look.  Most obviously are his theories on attraction and repulsion, which lead to his famous universal gravitation.  It is known that in the time preceeding The Principia, in which these theories appear, that Newton was deeply involved in alchemy.  The connection is undeniable.