ancient philosophy

Aristotle defines elements to be composed of properties that can be felt by touching. He uses two pairs of opposites, hot-cold and wet-dry, to define four elements, which he names fire, earth, water and air. And he identifies wet-dry with soft-hard, viscous-brittle and smooth-rough. Unlike the Stoics, he does not yet identify active-passive and light-heavy with hot-cold. If you do, you get:

fire hot (active) dry (hard) emo earth cold (passive) dry (hard) ero water cold (passive) wet (soft) emi air hot (active) wet (soft) eri

As you can see, this yields a one-to-one correspondence to my previous definition of the elements.

The fifth element (ether, quintessence) is usually associated with transformation and is often considered to be detached from the more profane, touchable first four elements, to be rather "divine" or to only exist in space.

India and China also know five elements. But let me instead consider something older and maybe more fundamental, namely the 8 trigrams of the Chinese Book of Changes, the I Ching.

heaven, strong, creative, father earth, devoted/yielding, receptive, mother thunder, inciting movement, arousing, 1st son water, dangerous, abysmal, 2nd son mountain, resting, keeping still, 3rd son wind/wood, penetrating, gentle, 1st daughter fire, light-giving, clinging, 2nd daughter lake, joyful, joyous, 3rd daughter

Seems they resemble the Greek elements in pairs, namely heaven-wind (air), earth-mountain, fire-thunder and water-lake. Let me rearrange them into another table:

heaven air rests male wind/wood air moves female mountain earth rests male earth earth moves female fire fire rests female thunder fire moves male lake water rests female water water moves male

Interestingly, if one selects the trigrams that correspond to the Greek elements, i.e. resting air and earth, moving fire and water, this selects exactly the male trigrams.

leads

- Aristotle. On Generation and Corruption. Around 350 BC.

- "Since, then, we are looking for 'originative sources' of perceptible body; and since 'perceptible' is equivalent to 'tangible', and 'tangible' is that of which the perception is touch; it is clear that not all the contrarieties constitute 'forms' and 'originative sources' of body, but only those which correspond to touch." (Book II, translated by H. Joachim)

- "From moist and dry are derived (iii) the fine and coarse, viscous and brittle, hard and soft, and the remaining tangible differences. For (a) since the moist has no determinate shape, but is readily adaptable and follows the outline of that which is in contact with it, it is characteristic of it to be 'such as to fill up'. Now 'the fine' is 'such as to fill up'. For 'the fine' consists of subtle particles; but that which consists of small particles is 'such as to fill up', inasmuch as it is in contact whole with whole-and 'the fine' exhibits this character in a superlative degree. Hence it is evident that the fine derives from the moist, while the coarse derives from the dry. Again (b) 'the viscous' derives from the moist: for 'the viscous' (e.g. oil) is a 'moist' modified in a certain way. 'The brittle', on the other hand, derives from the dry: for 'brittle' is that which is completely dry-so completely, that its solidification has actually been due to failure of moisture. Further (c) 'the soft' derives from the moist. For 'soft' is that which yields to pressure by retiring into itself, though it does not yield by total displacement as the moist does-which explains why the moist is not 'soft', although 'the soft' derives from the moist. 'The hard', on the other hand, derives from the dry: for 'hard' is that which is solidified, and the solidified is dry."

- "The elementary qualities are four [...]. Hence it is evident that the 'couplings' of the elementary qualities will be four: hot with dry and moist with hot, and again cold with dry and cold with moist. [...] Fire is hot and dry, whereas Air is hot and moist (Air being a sort of aqueous vapour); and Water is cold and moist, while Earth is cold and dry."

- Aristotle arranges the elements in a cycle fire-air-water-earth: "Thus (i) the process of conversion will be quick between those which have interchangeable 'complementary factors', but slow between those which have none. The reason is that it is easier for a single thing to change than for many. Air, e.g. will result from Fire if a single quality changes: for Fire, as we saw, is hot and dry while Air is hot and moist, so that there will be Air if the dry be overcome by the moist. Again, Water will result from Air if the hot be overcome by the cold: for Air, as we saw, is hot and moist while Water is cold and moist, so that, if the hot changes, there will be Water. So too, in the same manner, Earth will result from Water and Fire from Earth, since the two 'elements' in both these couples have interchangeable 'complementary factors'. For Water is moist and cold while Earth is cold and dry-so that, if the moist be overcome, there will be Earth: and again, since Fire is dry and hot while Earth is cold and dry, Fire will result from Earth if the cold pass-away."

- The views of the Stoics seem to have prevailed since Hellenistic times, including in medieval alchemy and up to contemporary astrology, where fire and air signs are seen as male and active, and the other two as female and passive.

- The I Ching is a divination system. By tossing coins or drawing yarrow sticks, one determines hexagrams (two trigrams) that are given meanings in the text of the I Ching.

- It appears that the fifth element is somehow contained in the duality of the trigrams. Can it be made more specific in which way exactly?

- A useful hint might be the following quote from the introduction of I Ching or Book of Changes. Richard Wilhelm. English by Cary F. Baynes. Penguin Books. 2003. "The eight trigrams are symbols standing for changing transitional states; they are images that are constantly undergoing change. Attention centers not on things in their state of being - as is chiefly the case in the Occident - but upon their movements in change. The eight trigrams therefore are not representations of things as such but of their tendencies in movement."

- How about putting the four elements into a circle in which they transform into each other? Then there would be 8 possible transitions (4 forward, 4 backward).

- Aristotle considers light-heavy to be neither hot-cold nor dry-wet - how about interpreting it as a third, independent opposite, yielding 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 elements? "(i) heavy and light are neither active nor susceptible. Things are not called 'heavy' and 'light' because they act upon, or suffer action from, other things. But the 'elements' must be reciprocally active and susceptible, since they 'combine' and are transformed into one another. On the other hand (ii) hot and cold, and dry and moist, are terms, of which the first pair implies power to act and the second pair susceptibility."