Newman’s 4th Chapter

As I was reading this chapter, I found Paracelsus’s way of thinking extremely strange. This probably relates to the fact that I am a very science oriented person, and the way he explained the occurrence of life seemed very illogical to me. How could life come from Art? Is there really such thing as Palingenesis? Nonetheless, now that I have come to think about it, maybe Paracelsus’s pursue in finding a way to life without fertilisation is due to his lack of interest in females, which could be related to his inter-sexuality. In other words, maybe he did not feel a sense of attraction towards females as he was slightly feminine himself. Consequently, he started thinking of the application of alchemy, and how the male sperm can give the spark of life alone, without an egg. In my opinion, including women in the process of making life was highly despised in the 17th century due to their menstrual blood, and what it symbolises. Menstrual blood was a sign of impurity, as it represents the death of what could have been alive; an ovum that could have been fertilised, but was not. Therefore, Paracelsus, and many other scholars like him, starting incubating the sperm and putting it in structures such as the womb of a horse (female body replacement), and essentially creating artificial life in the form of homunculus. Paracelsus’s theory might seem crazy and unrealistic to many. However, what those people fail to understand, me being previously one of them, is that life in the 21st generally can be generated with 1 sex only, such as the case for homosexual couples, yet I don’t see anyone doubting the ethics or principle behind the procedure, especially since it is very similar to Promotheus’s artificial life.