Is that functional evidence of anything at all? Most of those refer to the title of a campy but fun movie. No one takes that idea at all seriously. Scientists certainly didn’t take this idea at all seriously by even the early 1700s (Becher’s work was in the 1660s and 1670s). Between Becher and Boyle, this was well-settled by the time Kant came around. (Point of fact as early as 1620 or so people realized that Copernican system wreaked havoc with the 5 element model although many tried to replace it with a four element model.)
The only times today I ever see this myth are in things like Dungeons and Dragons, or occasionally when dealing with extreme New Age nonsense.
Edit: Also compare for example this search to yours which makes it clear that when one is looking for the fifth element meaning aether there are very few hits and most are either deliberate historical references or websites explaining the history.
I wouldn’t say so. America (as Europe and Asia) is full of this shit. See this!
Is that functional evidence of anything at all? Most of those refer to the title of a campy but fun movie. No one takes that idea at all seriously. Scientists certainly didn’t take this idea at all seriously by even the early 1700s (Becher’s work was in the 1660s and 1670s). Between Becher and Boyle, this was well-settled by the time Kant came around. (Point of fact as early as 1620 or so people realized that Copernican system wreaked havoc with the 5 element model although many tried to replace it with a four element model.)
The only times today I ever see this myth are in things like Dungeons and Dragons, or occasionally when dealing with extreme New Age nonsense.
Edit: Also compare for example this search to yours which makes it clear that when one is looking for the fifth element meaning aether there are very few hits and most are either deliberate historical references or websites explaining the history.
Those are all related to the sci-fi movie. I thought your claim was that people were taking it seriously.
ETA: And the ‘fifth element’ in that movie is certainly not Aether.