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Right-to-work law
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This article is about the U.S. laws prohibiting mandated union membership and dues. For the human right concept, see right to work. For the Indian law, see National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
"Right-to-work laws" are statutes in 28 U.S. states that prohibit union security agreements between companies and workers' unions. Under these laws, employees in unionized workplaces are banned from negotiating contracts which require all members who benefit from the union contract to contribute to the costs of union representation.[1]
According to the Legal Defense Foundation, right-to-work laws prohibit union security agreements, or agreements between employers and labor unions, that govern the extent to which an established union can require employees' membership, payment of union dues, or fees as a condition of employment, either before or after hiring. Right-to-work laws do not aim to provide general guarantee of employment to people seeking work, but rather are a government ban on contractual agreements between employers and union employees requiring workers to pay for the costs of union representation. [2]
Unions are already governed by regulations and laws, including public policy on labor-management relations. Typically, unions are organized by industry (e.g., healthcare, restaurant, steel workers, teachers, state government- professional, non-professional), and they are required to be voted in by employees. Union employees can vote to keep or get rid of their union through a decertification vote, and regularly negotiate and vote on their working conditions protected by a legally enforceable contract. Union workers in states without right-to-work restrictions can choose whether to require all employees benefiting from the contract to contribute.
Right-to-work provisions (either by law or by constitutional provision) exist in 28 U.S. states, mostly in the southern and western United States, but also including the Midwestern states of Michigan,[3] Indiana,[4] and Wisconsin.[5] Business interests represented by the United States Chamber of Commerce have lobbied extensively to pass right-to-work legislation.[6][7] Such laws are allowed under the 1947 federal Taft–Hartley Act. A further distinction is often made within the law between people employed by state and municipal governments and those employed by the private sector, with states that are otherwise union shop (i.e., workers must pay for union representation in order to obtain or retain a job) having right to work laws in effect for government employees; provided, however, that the law also permits an "agency shop" where employees pay their share for representation (less than union dues), while not joining the union as members.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 Origins
1.2 Wagner Act (1935)
1.3 Taft–Hartley Act (1947)
1.4 Current status
2 Arguments
2.1 In favor
2.1.1 Minority rights and due process
2.1.2 Freedom of association
2.1.3 Unfairness
2.1.4 Political contributions
2.2 Opposed
2.2.1 Free riders
2.2.2 Freedom of contract and association
2.2.3 Corporate interests
3 Studies of economic effect
4 Polling
5 U.S. states with right-to-work laws
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
8.1 Opposed to right-to-work laws
8.2 Supported right-to-work laws
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
According to Slate, "right-to-work" laws are derived from legislation forbidding unions from forcing strikes on workers, as well as from legal principles such as "liberty of contract," which as applied here sought to prevent passage of laws regulating workplace conditions.[8]
According to PandoDaily and NSFWCORP, the term itself was coined by Vance Muse, a Republican operative who headed an early "right-to-work" group, the "Christian American Association", to replace the term "American Plan" after it became associated with the anti-union violence of the First Red Scare.[9][10] Muse used racist rhetoric in his defense of "right-to-work" laws.[9][10]
According to the Conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, the term "right to work" was coined by Dallas Morning News editorial writer William Ruggles.[11]
(An unrelated use of term "right to work" had been coined by French socialist leader Louis Blanc before 1848.[12])
Wagner Act (1935)[edit]
The National Labor Relations Act, generally known as the Wagner Act, was passed in 1935 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Second New Deal." Among other things, the Act provided that a company could lawfully agree to be any of the following:
A closed shop, in which employees must be members of the union as a condition of employment. Under a closed shop, an employee who ceased being a member of the union for whatever reason, from failure to pay dues to expulsion from the union as an internal disciplinary punishment, was required to be fired even if the employee did not violate any of the employer's rules.
A union shop, which allows for hiring non-union employees, provided that the employees then join the union within a certain period.
An agency shop, in which employees must pay the equivalent of the cost of union representation, but need not formally join the union.
An open shop, in which an employee cannot be compelled to join or pay the equivalent of dues to a union or be fired for joining the union.[13]
The Act tasked the National Labor Relations Board, which had existed since 1933, with overseeing the rules.
Taft–Hartley Act (1947)[edit]
In 1947 Congress passed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, generally known as the Taft–Hartley Act, over President Harry S. Truman's veto. The Act repealed some parts of the Wagner Act, including outlawing the closed shop. Section 14(b) of the Taft–Hartley Act also authorizes individual states (but not local governments, such as cities or counties) to outlaw the union shop and agency shop for employees working in their jurisdictions. Any state law that outlaws such arrangements is known as a "right-to-work state."
In the early development of the right-to-work policy, segregationist sentiment was used as an argument, as many people in the South felt that it was wrong for blacks and whites to belong to the same unions. Vance Muse, one of the early developers of the policy in Texas, used that argument in the development of anti-union laws in Texas in the 1940s.[14]
Current status[edit]
The federal government operates under open shop rules nationwide, but many of its employees are represented by unions. Unions that represent professional athletes have written contracts that include particular representation provisions (such as in the National Football League),[15] but their application is limited to "wherever and whenever legal," as the Supreme Court has clearly held that the application of a right-to-work law is determined by the employee's "predominant job situs."[16] Players on professional sports teams in states with right-to-work laws are thus subject to those laws and cannot be required to pay any portion of union dues as a condition of continued employment.[17]
Twenty-two states, as well as the District of Columbia, do not have right-to-work laws. Missouri's is on hold after a petition called for a statewide vote on the issue.
On November 18, 2016, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of local governments to enact local right-to-work laws in Kentucky, Ohio, and the other states of its jurisdiction.[18]
Arguments[edit]
In favor[edit]
Minority rights and due process[edit]
The first arguments concerning the right to work centered around the rights of a dissenting minority with respect to an opposing majoritarian collective bargain. President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" had prompted many U.S. Supreme Court challenges, among which were challenges regarding the constitutionality of the National Industry Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA). In 1936, as a part of its ruling in Carter v. Carter Coal Co. the Court ruled against mandatory collective bargaining, stating:
The effect, in respect to wages and hours, is to subject the dissentient minority ... to the will of the stated majority .... To ‘accept’ in these circumstances, is not to exercise a choice, but to surrender to force. The power conferred upon the majority is, in effect, the power to regulate the affairs of an unwilling minority. This is legislative delegation in its most obnoxious form; for it is not even delegation to an official or an official body ... but to private persons .... [A] statute which attempts to confer such power undertakes an intolerable and unconstitutional interference with personal liberty and private property. The delegation is so clearly arbitrary, and so clearly a denial of rights safeguarded by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, that it is unnecessary to do more than refer to decisions of this Court which foreclose the question.[19]
Freedom of association[edit]
Besides the U.S. Supreme Court, other proponents of right-to-work laws also point to the Constitution and the right to freedom of association. They argue that workers should both be free to join unions or to refrain, and thus, sometimes refer to non-right-to-work states as "forced unionism" states. These proponents argue that by being forced into a collective bargain, what the majoritarian unions call a fair share of collective bargaining costs is actually "financial coercion and a violation of freedom of choice." An opponent to the union bargain is forced to "financially support an organization they did not vote for, in order to receive monopoly representation they have no choice over."[20]
Some religions, such as the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, prohibit or discourage the joining of unions,[21] citing Ellen White and the Loss of Free Will if you join a union.[clarification needed]
Unfairness[edit]
Proponents such as the Mackinac Center for Public Policy contend that it is unfair that unions can require new and existing employees to either join the union or pay fees for collective bargaining expenses as a condition of employment under union security agreement contracts.[22] Other proponents contend that unions may still be needed in new and growing sectors of the economy, for example, the voluntary and third party sectors, to assure adequate benefits for new immigrant, "part-time" aides in America (e.g., US Direct Support Workforce).
Political contributions[edit]
Right-to-work proponents, including the Center for Union Facts, contend that political contributions made by unions are not representative of the union workers.[23] The agency shop portion of this had previously been contested with support of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in Communications Workers of America v. Beck, resulting in "Beck rights" preventing agency fees from being used for expenses outside of collective bargaining if the non-union worker notifies the union of their objection.[24]
Opposed[edit]
Free riders[edit]
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Opponents such as Richard Kahlenberg have argued that while it is an effective political slogan, the phrase "right-to-work" is a misnomer because the lack of such a law does not deprive anyone of the right to work. The Taft–Hartley Act (1947) outlawed the union-only "closed shops" which did deprive people of the right to work, and the "right to work" doesn't eliminate a worker's option of joining a work or labor union. A right-to-work law simply "gives employees the right to be free riders—to benefit from collective bargaining without paying for it".[25][26][6][27] Under labor laws in the United States, the union as the exclusive collective bargaining agent has a duty of fair representation for all persons in the bargaining unit, including those who choose not to be members and pay dues. Thus, in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States permitted agency fees so that employees in the public sector could be required to pay for the costs of representation, even as they opted not to be a member. The right to challenge the fees must include the right to have it heard by an impartial fact finder.[28]
Freedom of contract and association[edit]
Opponents argue that right-to-work laws restrict freedom of association, and limit the sorts of agreements individuals acting collectively can make with their employer, by prohibiting workers and employers from agreeing to contracts that include "fair share fees". Moreover, American law imposes a duty of fair representation on unions; consequently non-members in right to work states can and do force unions to provide without compensation grievance services that are paid for by union members.[29] Hence right-to-work laws are not neutral, but rather impose an active and artificial burden on labor unions.
In December 2012, libertarian writer J.D. Tuccille, in Reason magazine, wrote:
I consider the restrictions right-to-work laws impose on bargaining between unions and businesses to violate freedom of contract and association. ... I'm disappointed that the state has, once again, inserted itself into the marketplace to place its thumb on the scale in the never-ending game of playing business and labor off against one another. ... This is not to say that unions are always good. It means that, when the state isn't involved, they're private organizations that can offer value to their members.[30]
Corporate interests[edit]
Critics from organized labor have pointed out since the late 1970s[31] that while the National Right to Work Committee purports to engage in grass-roots lobbying on behalf of the "little guy", the National Right to Work Committee was formed by a group of southern businessmen with the express purpose of fighting unions, and that they "added a few workers for the purpose of public relations".[32]
The unions also contend that the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and National Right to Work Committee have received millions of dollars in grants from foundations controlled by major U.S. industrialists like the New York-based Olin Foundation, Inc., which grew out of a family manufacturing business, but now funds primarily conservative think tanks, media outlets, and university law programs.[32][33]
Kahlenberg and Marvit also argue that, at least in efforts to pass a right-to-work law in Michigan, excluding police and firefighter unions—traditionally less hostile to Republicans—from the law caused some to question claims that the law was simply an effort to improve Michigan's businesses climate, not to seek partisan advantage.[25]
Corporate interests have now involved the growing non-profit and voluntary sectors of the economy which "achieved parity in wages and benefits" to the state, unionized workforces, while not assuring provisions such as adverse hearings which benefit employees.
Studies of economic effect[edit]
According to Tim Bartik of the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, studies of the effect of right-to-work laws "abound," but are not "consistent." Studies have found both "some positive effect on job growth," and no effect.[34] Thomas Holmes argues that it is difficult to analyze right-to-work laws by comparing states due to other similarities between states that have passed these laws. For instance, right-to-work states often have some strong pro-business policies, making it difficult to isolate the effect of right-to-work laws.[35] Looking at the growth of states in the Southeast following World War II, Bartik notes that while they have right-to-work laws they have also benefited from "factors like the widespread use of air conditioning and different modes of transportation that helped decentralize manufacturing".[36]
Economist Thomas Holmes compared counties close to the border between states with and without right-to-work laws (thereby holding constant an array of factors related to geography and climate). He found that the cumulative growth of employment in manufacturing in the right-to-work states was 26 percentage points greater than that in the non-right-to-work states.[37] However, given the study design, Holmes points out "my results do not say that it is right-to-work laws that matter, but rather that the 'probusiness package' offered by right-to-work states seems to matter."[38] Moreover, as noted by Kevin Drum and others, this result may reflect business relocation rather than an overall enhancement of economic growth, since "businesses prefer locating in states where costs are low and rules are lax."[39]
A February 2011 study by the Economic Policy Institute found:[26]
Wages in right-to-work states are 3.2% lower than those in non-RTW states, after controlling for a full complement of individual demographic and socioeconomic variables as well as state macroeconomic indicators. Using the average wage in non-RTW states as the base ($22.11), the average full-time, full-year worker in an RTW state makes about $1,500 less annually than a similar worker in a non-RTW state. The study goes on to say "How much of this difference can be attributed to RTW status itself? There is an inherent “endogeneity” problem in any attempt to answer that question, namely that RTW and non-RTW states differ on a wide variety of measures that are also related to compensation, making it difficult to isolate the impact of RTW status."[26]
The rate of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) is 2.6 percentage points lower in RTW states compared with non-RTW states, after controlling for individual, job, and state-level characteristics. If workers in non-RTW states were to receive ESI at this lower rate, 2 million fewer workers nationally would be covered.
The rate of employer-sponsored pensions is 4.8 percentage points lower in RTW states, using the full complement of control variables in [the study's] regression model. If workers in non-RTW states were to receive pensions at this lower rate, 3.8 million fewer workers nationally would have pensions.
A 2008 editorial in The Wall Street Journal comparing job growth in Ohio and Texas stated that from 1998 to 2008, Ohio lost 10,400 jobs, while Texas gained 1,615,000. The opinion piece suggested right-to-work laws might be among the reasons for the economic expansion in Texas, along with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the absence of a state income tax in Texas.[40] Another Wall Street Journal editorial in 2012, by the president and the labor policy director of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, reported 71% employment growth in right-to-work states from 1980 to 2011, while employment in non-right-to-work states grew just 32% during the same period.[41] The 2012 editorial also stated that since 2001, compensation in right-to-work states had increased 4 times faster than in other states.[41]
Polling[edit]
In January 2012, in the immediate aftermath of passage of Indiana's right-to-work law, Rasmussen Reports found that 74% of likely U.S. voters supported right-to-work laws, but "most also don’t think a non-union worker should enjoy benefits negotiated by the union."[42]
In Michigan in January through March 2013, a poll found that 43 percent of those polled thought the law would help Michigan's economy, while 41 percent thought it would hurt.[43]
U.S. states with right-to-work laws[edit]
Right-to-work states shown in turquoise.
The following states (28) are right-to-work states:
Alabama (adopted 1953, Constitution 2016)
Arizona (Constitution, State Constitution Article 25 approved 1946)[44] (adopted 1944)
Arkansas (Constitution, 1947, Amendment 34)
Florida (Constitution, 1944, revised 1968, Article 1, Section 6)[45]
Georgia (adopted 1947)
Idaho (adopted 1985)
Indiana[4] (State law, 2012)
Iowa (adopted 1947)
Kansas (Constitution, 1958, Article 15, Section 12)
Kentucky (adopted 2017)
Louisiana (adopted 1976)
Michigan (State law, 2012)[3]
Mississippi (Constitution, adopted 1954)
Missouri (adopted 2017) (Postponed by petition to 2018 for citizen voting)
Nebraska (Constitution and statute, adopted 1946)
Nevada (adopted 1951)
North Carolina (adopted 1947)
North Dakota (adopted 1947)
Oklahoma (Constitution, adopted 2001)
South Carolina[46] (adopted 1954)
South Dakota (adopted 1946)
Tennessee (adopted 1947)
Texas[47] (adopted 1947, revised 1993)
Utah (adopted 1955)
Virginia (adopted 1947)
West Virginia (adopted 2016) (Went into effect September 2017 due to lower court injunctions)
Wisconsin (adopted 2015)
Wyoming (adopted 1963)
In addition, the territory of Guam also has right-to-work laws, and employees of the US Federal Government have the right to choose whether or not to join their respective unions.[48]
New Hampshire adopted a right-to-work bill in 1947, but it was repealed in 1949 by the state legislature and governor.[49]
See also[edit]
At-will employment
Closed shop/open shop
United States labor law
References[edit]
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External links[edit]
Find more aboutRight-to-work lawat Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Opposed to right-to-work laws[edit]
Wisconsin Contractor Coalition
Supported right-to-work laws[edit]
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce
Michigan Chamber of Commerce
National Right to Work Committee
National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund
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Classical element
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"4 Elements" redirects here. For the album by Chronic Future, see 4 Elements (album).
Classical elements
Stoicheion (στοιχεῖον)
Greek
[show]
Air
Water Aether Fire
Earth
Tattva – Mahābhūta, Panchikarana
Hinduism/Jainism – Buddhism
[show]
Vayu
Ap Akasha Agni
Prithvi
Wŭ Xíng (五行)
Chinese
[show]
Wood (木)
Water (水) Fire (火)
Metal (金) Earth (土)
Godai (五大)
Japanese
[show]
Air (風)
Water (水) Void (空) Fire (火)
Earth (地)
Bön
Tibetan
[show]
Air
Water Aether Fire
Earth
Alchemy
Medieval
[show]
Air
Water Aether Fire
Earth
Sulphur Mercury Salt
v
t
e
Segment of the macrocosm showing the elemental spheres of terra (earth), aqua (water), aer (air), and ignis (fire), Robert Fludd, 1617
Classical elements typically refer to the concepts in ancient Greece of earth, water, air, fire, and aether, which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances.[1][2] Ancient cultures in Egypt, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India had similar lists, sometimes referring in local languages to "air" as "wind" and the fifth element as "void". The Chinese Wu Xing system lists Wood (木 mù), Fire (火 huǒ), Earth (土 tǔ), Metal (金 jīn), and Water (水 shuǐ), though these are described more as energies or transitions than as types of material.
These different cultures and even individual philosophers had widely varying explanations concerning their attributes and how they related to observable phenomena as well as cosmology. Sometimes these theories overlapped with mythology and were personified in deities. Some of these interpretations included atomism (the idea of very small, indivisible portions of matter) but other interpretations considered the elements to be divisible into infinitely small pieces without changing their nature.
While the classification of the material world by the ancient Indians and Greeks into Air, Earth, Fire and Water was more philosophical, during the Islamic Golden Age medieval middle eastern scientists used practical, experimental observation to classify materials.[3] In Europe, the Ancient Greek system of Aristotle evolved slightly into the medieval system, which for the first time in Europe became subject to experimental verification in the 1600s, during the Scientific Revolution.
Centuries of empirical investigation have proven that all the ancient systems were incorrect explanations of the physical world. It is now known that atomic theory is a correct explanation, and that atoms can be classified into more than a hundred chemical elements such as oxygen, iron, and mercury. These elements form chemical compounds and mixtures, and under different temperatures and pressures, these substances can adopt different states of matter. The most commonly observed states of solid, liquid, gas, and plasma share many attributes with the classical elements of earth, water, air, and fire, respectively, but it is now known that these states are due to similar behavior of different types of atoms at similar energy levels, and not due to containing a certain type of atom or a certain type of infinitely divisible substance or energy.
Contents
[hide]
1 Ancient times
1.1 Egypt
1.2 Cosmic elements in Babylonia
1.3 India
1.3.1 Hinduism
1.3.2 Buddhism
1.4 China
1.5 Greece
1.6 Tibet
2 Medieval
2.1 Alchemy
2.2 Islamic
2.3 Japan
3 Western astrology
4 Modern
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Ancient times[edit]
In classical thought, the four elements earth, water, air, and fire as proposed by Empedocles frequently occur; Aristotle added a fifth element, aether; it has been called akasha in India and quintessence in Europe.
The concept of the five elements formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, particularly in an esoteric context, the four states-of-matter describe matter, and a fifth element describes that which was beyond the material world. Similar lists existed in ancient China, Korea and Japan. In Buddhism the four great elements, to which two others are sometimes added, are not viewed as substances, but as categories of sensory experience.
Egypt[edit]
A Greek text called the Kore Kosmou ("Virgin of the World") ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus (associated with the Egyptian god Thoth), names the four elements fire, water, air, and earth. As described in this book:
And Isis answer made: Of living things, my son, some are made friends with fire, and some with water, some with air, and some with earth, and some with two or three of these, and some with all. And, on the contrary, again some are made enemies of fire, and some of water, some of earth, and some of air, and some of two of them, and some of three, and some of all. For instance, son, the locust and all flies flee fire; the eagle and the hawk and all high-flying birds flee water; fish, air and earth; the snake avoids the open air. Whereas snakes and all creeping things love earth; all swimming things love water; winged things, air, of which they are the citizens; while those that fly still higher love the fire and have the habitat near it. Not that some of the animals as well do not love fire; for instance salamanders, for they even have their homes in it. It is because one or another of the elements doth form their bodies' outer envelope. Each soul, accordingly, while it is in its body is weighted and constricted by these four.
According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), blood (air), and phlegm (water). Medical care was flexible and primarily about helping the patient stay in or return to his/her own personal natural balanced state.[4][citation needed]
Cosmic elements in Babylonia[edit]
In Babylonian mythology, the cosmogony called Enûma Eliš, a text written between the 18th and 16th centuries BC, involves four gods that we might see as personified cosmic elements: sea, earth, sky, wind. In other Babylonian texts these phenomena are considered independent of their association with deities,[5] though they are not treated as the component elements of the universe, as later in Empedocles.
India[edit]
Hinduism[edit]
Main articles: Mahābhūta and Guṇa
The system of five elements are found in Vedas, especially Ayurveda, the pancha mahabhuta, or "five great elements", of Hinduism are bhūmi (earth),[6] ap or jala (water), tejas or agni (fire), marut, vayu or pavan (air or wind) and vyom or shunya (space or zero) or akash (aether or void).[7] They further suggest that all of creation, including the human body, is made up of these five essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these five elements of nature, thereby balancing the cycle of nature.[8]
The five elements are associated with the five senses, and act as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. The basest element, earth, created using all the other elements, can be perceived by all five senses – (i) hearing, (ii) touch, (iii) sight, (iv) taste, and (v) smell. The next higher element, water, has no odor but can be heard, felt, seen and tasted. Next comes fire, which can be heard, felt and seen. Air can be heard and felt. "Akasha" (aether) is beyond the senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch; it being accessible to the sense of hearing alone.[9][10][11]
Buddhism[edit]
Main article: Mahābhūta
In the Pali literature, the mahabhuta ("great elements") or catudhatu ("four elements") are earth, water, fire and air. In early Buddhism, the four elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterization as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction – instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived.[12]
The Buddha's teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or energy content (fire). He promulgated a categorization of mind and matter as composed of eight types of "kalapas" of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are color, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.[citation needed]
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997) renders an extract of Shakyamuni Buddha's from Pali into English thus:
Just as a skilled butcher or his apprentice, having killed a cow, would sit at a crossroads cutting it up into pieces, the monk contemplates this very body – however it stands, however it is disposed – in terms of properties: 'In this body there is the earth property, the liquid property, the fire property, & the wind property.'[13]
Tibetan Buddhist medical literature speaks of the Panch Mahābhūta (five elements).[14]
China[edit]
Main article: Wu Xing
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
The Chinese had a somewhat different series of elements, namely Fire, Earth, Metal (literally gold), Water and Wood, which were understood as different types of energy in a state of constant interaction and flux with one another, rather than the Western notion of different kinds of material.
Although it is usually translated as "element", the Chinese word xing literally means something like "changing states of being", "permutations" or "metamorphoses of being".[15] In fact Sinologists cannot agree on any single translation. The Chinese elements were seen as ever changing and moving – one translation of wu xing is simply "the five changes".
The Wu Xing are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device for systems with five stages; hence the preferred translation of "movements", "phases" or "steps" over "elements."
In the bagua, metal is associated with the divination figure 兌 Duì (☱, the lake or marsh: 澤/泽 zé) and with 乾 Qián (☰, the sky or heavens: 天 tiān). Wood is associated with 巽 Xùn (☴, the wind: 風/风 fēng) and with 震 Zhèn (☳, the arousing/thunder: 雷 léi). In view of the durability of meteoric iron, metal came to be associated with the aether, which is sometimes conflated with Stoic pneuma, as both terms originally referred to air (the former being higher, brighter, more fiery or celestial and the latter being merely warmer, and thus vital or biogenetic). In Taoism, qi functions similarly to pneuma in a prime matter (a basic principle of energetic transformation) that accounts for both biological and inanimate phenomena.
In Chinese philosophy the universe consists of heaven and earth. The five major planets are associated with and even named after the elements: Jupiter 木星 is Wood (木), Mars 火星 is Fire (火), Saturn 土星 is Earth (土), Venus 金星 is Metal (金), and Mercury 水星 is Water (水). Also, the Moon represents Yin (陰), and the Sun 太陽 represents Yang (陽). Yin, Yang, and the five elements are associated with themes in the I Ching, the oldest of Chinese classical texts which describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy. The five elements also play an important part in Chinese astrology and the Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng shui.
The doctrine of five phases describes two cycles of balance, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming or destruction (克/剋, kè) cycle of interactions between the phases.
Generating
Wood feeds fire;
Fire creates earth (ash);
Earth bears metal;
Metal collects water;
Water nourishes wood.
Overcoming
Wood parts earth;
Earth absorbs water;
Water quenches fire;
Fire melts metal;
Metal chops wood.
There are also two cycles of imbalance, an overacting cycle (cheng) and an insulting cycle (wu).
Greece[edit]
Aristotelian elements and qualities
Empedoclean elements
fire · earth
water · air
The ancient Greek belief in five basic elements, these being earth (γῆ ge), water (ὕδωρ hudor), air (ἀήρ aer), fire (πῦρ pur) and aether (αἰθήρ aither), dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, deeply influencing European thought and culture. These five elements are sometimes associated with the five platonic solids.
Sicilian philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC) proved (at least to his satisfaction) that air was a separate substance by observing that a bucket inverted in water did not become filled with water, a pocket of air remaining trapped inside.[16] Prior to Empedocles, Greek philosophers had debated which substance was the primordial element from which everything else was made; Heraclitus championed fire, Thales supported water, and Anaximenes plumped for air.[17] Anaximander argued that the primordial substance was not any of the known substances, but could be transformed into them, and they into each other.[18] Empedocles was the first to propose four elements, fire, earth, air, and water.[19] He called them the four "roots" (ῥιζὤματα, rhizōmata).
Plato seems to have been the first to use the term "element (στοιχεῖον, stoicheion)" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water.[20] The ancient Greek word for element, stoicheion (from stoicheo, "to line up") meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed. A similar alphabetic metaphor may be the origin of the equivalent Latin word elementum (from which the English word comes), possibly based on the names of the letters 'l', 'm', and 'n', though the validity of this idea is debated.[21]
In his On Generation and Corruption,[22][23] Aristotle related each of the four elements to two of the four sensible qualities:
Fire is both hot and dry.
Air is both hot and wet (for air is like vapor, ἀτμὶς).
Water is both cold and wet.
Earth is both cold and dry.
A classic diagram has one square inscribed in the other, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties. The opposite corner is the opposite of these properties, "hot – cold" and "dry – wet".
Aristotle added a fifth element, aether, as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air, and water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.[24]
The Neoplatonic philosopher, Proclus, rejected Aristotle's theory relating the elements to the sensible qualities hot, cold, wet, and dry. He maintained that each of the elements has three properties. Fire is sharp, subtle, and mobile while its opposite, earth, is blunt, dense, and immobile; they are joined by the intermediate elements, air and water, in the following fashion:[25]
Fire
Sharp Subtle Mobile
Air
Blunt Subtle Mobile
Water
Blunt Dense Mobile
Earth
Blunt Dense Immobile
Tibet[edit]
In Bön or ancient Tibetan philosophy, the five elemental processes of earth, water, fire, air and space are the essential materials of all existent phenomena or aggregates. The elemental processes form the basis of the calendar, astrology, medicine, psychology and are the foundation of the spiritual traditions of shamanism, tantra and Dzogchen.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche states that
physical properties are assigned to the elements: earth is solidity; water is cohesion; fire is temperature; air is motion; and space is the spatial dimension that accommodates the other four active elements. In addition, the elements are correlated to different emotions, temperaments, directions, colors, tastes, body types, illnesses, thinking styles, and character. From the five elements arise the five senses and the five fields of sensory experience; the five negative emotions and the five wisdoms; and the five extensions of the body. They are the five primary pranas or vital energies. They are the constituents of every physical, sensual, mental, and spiritual phenomenon.[26]
The names of the elements are analogous to categorised experiential sensations of the natural world. The names are symbolic and key to their inherent qualities and/or modes of action by analogy. In Bön the elemental processes are fundamental metaphors for working with external, internal and secret energetic forces. All five elemental processes in their essential purity are inherent in the mindstream and link the trikaya and are aspects of primordial energy. As Herbert V. Günther states:
Thus, bearing in mind that thought struggles incessantly against the treachery of language and that what we observe and describe is the observer himself, we may nonetheless proceed to investigate the successive phases in our becoming human beings. Throughout these phases, the experience (das Erlebnis) of ourselves as an intensity (imaged and felt as a "god", lha) setting up its own spatiality (imaged and felt as a "house" khang) is present in various intensities of illumination that occur within ourselves as a "temple." A corollary of this Erlebnis is its light character manifesting itself in various "frequencies" or colors. This is to say, since we are beings of light we display this light in a multiplicity of nuances.[27]
In the above block quote the trikaya is encoded as: dharmakaya "god"; sambhogakaya "temple" and nirmanakaya "house".
Medieval[edit]
Alchemy[edit]
Seventeenth century alchemical emblem showing the four Classical elements in the corners of the image, alongside the tria prima on the central triangle
The elemental system used in Medieval alchemy was developed primarily by the Persian alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber).[28] His system consisted of the four classical elements of air, earth, fire, and water, in addition to two philosophical elements: sulphur, characterizing the principle of combustibility, "the stone which burns"; and mercury, characterizing the principle of metallic properties. They were seen by early alchemists as idealized expressions of irreducibile components of the universe[29] and are of larger consideration within philosophical alchemy.
The three metallic principles—sulphur to flammability or combustion, mercury to volatility and stability, and salt to solidity—became the tria prima of the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. He reasoned that Aristotle’s four element theory appeared in bodies as three principles. Paracelsus saw these principles as fundamental and justified them by recourse to the description of how wood burns in fire. Mercury included the cohesive principle, so that when it left in smoke the wood fell apart. Smoke described the volatility (the mercurial principle), the heat-giving flames described flammability (sulphur), and the remnant ash described solidity (salt).[30]
Islamic[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2016)
The Islamic philosophers al-Kindi, Avicenna and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi connected the four elements with the four natures heat and cold (the active force), and dryness and moisture (the recipients).[31]
Japan[edit]
Main article: Five elements (Japanese philosophy)
Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the 五大 (godai, literally "five great"). These five are earth, water, fire, wind/air, and void. These came from Indian Vastu shastra philosophy and Buddhist beliefs; in addition, the classical Chinese elements (五行, wu xing) are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the medieval Edo period.
Earth represented things that were solid.
Water represented things that were liquid.
Fire represented things that destroy.
Air represented things that moved.
Void or Sky/Heaven represented things not of our everyday life.
Western astrology[edit]
Main article: Astrology and the classical elements
Western astrology uses the four classical elements in connection with astrological charts and horoscopes. The twelve signs of the zodiac are divided into the four elements: Fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, Air signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, and Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.[32]
Modern [edit]
See also: Chemical element § History
The Aristotelian tradition and medieval Alchemy eventually gave rise to modern scientific theories and new taxonomies. By the time of Antoine Lavoisier, for example, a list of elements would no longer refer to classical elements.[33] Some modern scientists see a parallel between the classical elements and the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas and weakly ionized plasma.[34]
Modern science recognizes classes of elementary particles which have no substructure (or rather, particles that are not made of other particles) and composite particles having substructure (particles made of other particles).
See also[edit]
Book: Classical elements
Alchemy
Classical elements in popular culture
Elemental (Renaissance alchemy)
Five elements (Chinese wǔ xíng)
Five elements (Hindu mahābhūta) and Four elements (Buddhist mahābhūtāni)
Five elements (Japanese godai)
First principle (Pre-Socratic arche and Aristotelian substratum)
First principle (Chinese qì and Japanese ki)
Overview of the fundamental interaction
First principle (Prima materia in Alchemy)
Periodic table of the elements (Modern science)
Philosopher's stone (Middle Ages and Renaissance alchemy)
Phlogiston theory (History of science)
Fundamental interaction (Quantum Mechanics)
Table of correspondences (Magic and the occult)
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Boyd, T.J.M.; Sanderson, J.J. (2003). The Physics of Plasmas. Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780521459129. LCCN 2002024654.
Jump up ^ Ball, P. (2004). The Elements: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. OUP Oxford. p. 33. ISBN 9780191578250.
Jump up ^ Science and Islam, Jim Al-Khalili. BBC, 2009
Jump up ^ Lindemann, Mary (2010). Medicine and Society in early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-521-73256-7.
Jump up ^ Francesca Rochberg (December 2002). "A consideration of Babylonian astronomy within the historiography of science". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 33 (4): 661–684. doi:10.1016/S0039-3681(02)00022-5.
Jump up ^ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam, ed. India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 78.
Jump up ^ Subhash Ranade. Natural Healing Through Ayurveda. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher. p. 32. ISBN 9788120812437.
Jump up ^ Maithily Jagannathan. South Indian Hindu Festivals and Traditions. Abhinav Publications. pp. 60–62.
Jump up ^ Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2005). Theatre and Consciousness: Explanatory Scope and Future Potential. Intellect Books.
Jump up ^ Samir Nath. Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Buddhism. Sarup & Sons. p. 653.
Jump up ^ Poola Tirupati Raju. Structural Depths of Indian Thought: Toward a Constructive Postmodern Ethics. SUNY Press. p. 81.
Jump up ^ Lusthaus, Dan. "What is and isn't Yogācāra".
Jump up ^ Majjhima Nikaya. "Kayagata-sati Sutta". p. 119. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
Jump up ^ Gurmet, Padma (2004). "'Sowa - Rigpa' : Himalayan art of healing". Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge. 3 (2): 212–218.
Jump up ^ Wolfram Eberhard (1986). A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul. pp. 93, 105, 309. ISBN 0-7102-0191-5.
Jump up ^ Russell, p. 72
Jump up ^ Russell, p. 61
Jump up ^ Russell, p. 46
Jump up ^ Russell, pp. 62, 75
Jump up ^ Plato, Timaeus, 48b
Jump up ^ Lehmann, R.G. (2011). "27-30-22-26 - How many letters needs an alphabet?". In de Voogt, A.; Quack, J.F. The Idea of Writing: Writing Across Borders. Brill. pp. 15–16, note 8.
Jump up ^ τὸ μὲν γὰρ πῦρ θερμὸν καὶ ξηρόν, ὁ δ' ἀὴρ θερμὸν καὶ ὑγρόν (οἷον ἀτμὶς γὰρ ὁ ἀήρ), τὸ δ' ὕδωρ ψυχρὸν καὶ ὑγρόν, ἡ δὲ γῆ ψυχρὸν καὶ ξηρόν [1]
Jump up ^ Lloyd, G. E. R. (1968), Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of His Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 166–169, ISBN 0-521-09456-9
Jump up ^ Lloyd, G. E. R. (1968). Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of his Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 133–139. ISBN 0-521-09456-9.
Jump up ^ Proclus, Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, 3.38.1–3.39.28
Jump up ^ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (2002). Healing with Form, Energy, and Light. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications. p. 1. ISBN 1-55939-176-6.
Jump up ^ Herber V. Günther (1996). The Teachings of Padmasambhava (Hardcover ed.). Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill. pp. 115–116.
Jump up ^ Norris, John A. (2006). "The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science". Ambix. 53: 43. doi:10.1179/174582306X93183.
Jump up ^ Clulee, Nicholas H. (1988). John Dee's Natural Philosophy. Routledge. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-415-00625-5.
Jump up ^ Strathern, 2000. Page 79.
Jump up ^ Rafati, Vahid. Lawh-i-Hikmat: The Two Agents and the Two Patients. `Andalib, vol. 5, no. 19, pp. 29-38.
Jump up ^ Tester, S. J. (1999). A History of Western Astrology. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 59–61, 94.
Jump up ^ Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), in Classic Chemistry, compiled by Carmen Giunta
Jump up ^ Kikuchi, Mitsuru (2011), Frontiers in Fusion Research: Physics and Fusion, London: Springer Science and Business Media, p. 12, ISBN 978-1-84996-411-1, Empedocles (495–435 BC) proposed that the world was made of earth, water, air, and fire, which may correspond to solid, liquid, gas, and weakly ionized plasma. Surprisingly, this idea may catch the essence.
References[edit]
Russell, Bertrand (1995) History of Western Philosophy, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-07854-7.
Strathern, Paul (2000). Mendeleyev's Dream – the Quest for the Elements. New York: Berkley Books.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Four elements.
Section on 4 elements in Buddhism
The Kore Kosmou or Virgin of the World. www.sacred-texts.com for Ancient Egypt Elements
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