Alchemy was never an academic field. It was a tradition veiled in secrecy, requiring years of private work and knowledge transmission through strict and very narrow (typically teacher-student) channels.
Your point has been brought up before -usually as an attempt by established institutions to whitewash and explain away Newton's idiosyncrasies- but there is no evidence whatsoever to back it. On the contrary, what we know (and there is a lot we do know thanks to his writings) about Newton and alchemy absolutely indicates him being immersed in the Hermetic worldview and alchemical paradigm. Clearly, Newton was practicing alchemy not as a way to look for novel techniques or as a way to bridge the old and new worlds together, but primarily because he was a devout believer.
Newton -a profound genius- stood at the threshold of two worlds colliding. He was also a groundbreaking scientist in optics/mechanics/mathematics. He was aware of Boyle's chemical research. Knowing all of that, he _absolutely_ chose to dedicate his life to alchemy. That is immensely interesting.
"Much of Newton's writing on alchemy may have been lost in a fire in his laboratory, so the true extent of his work in this area may have been larger than is currently known. Newton also suffered a nervous breakdown during his period of alchemical work, possibly due to some form of chemical poisoning (perhaps from mercury, lead, or some other substance)."
Your point has been brought up before -usually as an attempt by established institutions to whitewash and explain away Newton's idiosyncrasies- but there is no evidence whatsoever to back it. On the contrary, what we know (and there is a lot we do know thanks to his writings) about Newton and alchemy absolutely indicates him being immersed in the Hermetic worldview and alchemical paradigm. Clearly, Newton was practicing alchemy not as a way to look for novel techniques or as a way to bridge the old and new worlds together, but primarily because he was a devout believer.
Newton -a profound genius- stood at the threshold of two worlds colliding. He was also a groundbreaking scientist in optics/mechanics/mathematics. He was aware of Boyle's chemical research. Knowing all of that, he _absolutely_ chose to dedicate his life to alchemy. That is immensely interesting.
"Much of Newton's writing on alchemy may have been lost in a fire in his laboratory, so the true extent of his work in this area may have been larger than is currently known. Newton also suffered a nervous breakdown during his period of alchemical work, possibly due to some form of chemical poisoning (perhaps from mercury, lead, or some other substance)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton%27s_occult_studie...