CULTURE: Alchemical Theory and Practice as Overcoming the Split Between the Domain of Culture and Life Itself

The paper refers to Bakhtin’s philosophy of the act and his theory of a fundamental split between two worlds: the domain of culture and life itself, which he describes as a “split between the content or sense of a given act/activity and the historical actuality of its being, the actual and once-occurrent experiencing of it”50. His theory is related to the realm beyond Bakhtin’s interests – to the research on the alchemists’ activities and their ideals. e aim of the paper is to answer the question whether the alchemists’ thought and e#orts do correspond with the Bakhtin’s theory and may be perceived as referring to the unity of sense or meaning of an act/activity and the historical actuality of its being – ipso facto the unity of culture and life.