espanolEl cambio Alquimia-Quimica respondio a dinamicas sociales, economicas, politicas y epistemicas en momentos precisos de la Historia. Ello se explica desde dos aristas: un cambio epistemico y uno politico-social. El primero hace referencia a la sustitucion del vitalismo y el corpuscularismo —que sustentaba la Alquimia—, al mecanicismo, cartesianismo –sustento de la Quimica como disciplina cientifica—. El segundo alude al surgimiento de instituciones que incorporaban o excluian discursos de acuerdo con su utilidad en la solucion de problemas politicos y sociales en medio de la crisis del Ancien Regime y del ascenso de una clase social. En tal dinamica, la idea de progreso fue determinante. EnglishThe shift Alchemy-Chemistry answered to social, political, economic and epistemic dynamics characteristics to precise moments of history. This can be explained from two viewpoints: the epistemic shift and the socio-political shift. The former refers to the replacement of vitalism and corpuscularism —which supported alchemy— by mechanism, cartesianism and pragmatism —which supported chemistry as a scientific discipline—. The latter alludes to the emergence of institutions that included and excluded speeches according to its utility in solving political and social problems in the middle of the crisis of Ancient Regime and the emergence of a social class. In this dinamic, the idea of progress was crucial.