Philosophy Of Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline

365 Pages·2006·2.903 MB·English

by  Davis Baird, Eric Scerri, Lee McIntyre (auth.), Davis Baird, Eric Scerri, Lee McIntyre (eds.)

PHILOSOPHYOFCHEMISTRY
BOSTONSTUDIESINTHEPHILOSOPHYOFSCIENCE
Editors
ROBERTS.COHEN,BostonUniversity
JU¨RGENRENN,Max-Planck-InstitutefortheHistoryofScience
KOSTASGAVROGLU,UniversityofAthens
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
THOMASF.GLICK,BostonUniversity
ADOLFGRU¨NBAUM,UniversityofPittsburgh
SYLVANS.SCHWEBER,BrandeisUniversity
JOHNJ.STACHEL,BostonUniversity
MARXW.WARTOFSKY†,(Editor1960–1997)
VOLUME242
PHILOSOPHY OF
CHEMISTRY
Synthesis of a New Discipline
Editedby
DAVIS BAIRD
UniversityofSouthCarolina
ERIC SCERRI
UniversityofCaliforniaatLosAngeles
and
LEE MCINTYRE
BostonUniversity
AC.I.P.CataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress.
ISBN-101-4020-3256-0(HB)Springer
ISBN-101-4020-3261-7(e-book)Springer
ISBN-13978-1-4020-3256-1(HB)Springer
ISBN-13978-1-4020-3261-5(e-book)Springer
PublishedbySpringer,
P.O.Box17,3300AADordrecht,TheNetherlands.
Printedonacid-freepaper
AllRightsReserved
(cid:1)C 2006Springer
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted
inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recording
orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexception
ofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingentered
andexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.
PrintedintheNetherlands.
CONTENTS
I. CHEMISTRYANDTHEPHILOSOPHYOFCHEMISTRY
1. “Introduction:TheInvisibilityofChemistry” 3
DavisBaird,EricScerri,LeeMcIntyre
2. “ThePhilosophyofChemistry:FromInfancy
TowardMaturity” 19
JoachimSchummer
II. CHEMISTRYANDTHEHISTORYANDPHILOSOPHY
OFSCIENCE
3. “Aristotle’sTheoryofChemicalReactionand
ChemicalSubstances” 43
PaulNeedham
4. “Kant’sLegacyforthePhilosophyofChemistry” 69
J.vanBrakel,K.U.Leuven
III. CHEMISTRYANDCURRENTPHILOSOPHYOFSCIENCE
5. “TheConceptualStructureoftheSciences:Reemergence
oftheHumanDimension” 95
OttoTheodorBenfey
6. “NormativeandDescriptivePhilosophyofScience
andtheRoleofChemistry” 119
EricR.Scerri
v
vi CONTENTS
7. “HowClassicalModelsofExplanationFailtoCopewith
Chemistry—TheCaseofMolecularModeling” 129
JohannesHunger
8. “ProfessionalEthicsinScience” 157
JeffreyKovac
IV. CHEMISTRYANDPHYSICS
9. “IsThereDownwardCausationinChemistry?” 173
RobinFindlayHendry
10. “PhysicsintheCrucibleofChemistry:Ontological
BoundariesandEpistemologicalBlueprints” 191
G.K.Vemulapalli
V. CHEMICALTHEORYANDFOUNDATIONALQUESTIONS
11. “SomePhilosophicalImplicationsofChemicalSymmetry” 207
JosephE.Earley
12. “ThePeriodicSystemsofMolecules:Presuppositions,
ProblemsandProspects” 221
RayHefferlin
13. “ANewParadigmforSchro¨dingerandKohn” 245
JackR.Woodyard
VI. CHEMISTRYANDITSTOOLSOFREPRESENTATION
14. “VirtualTools:TheEpistemologicalandSocialIssuesof
Computer-AidedChemicalProcessDesign” 273
AnnJohnson
15. “SpaceinMolecularRepresentation;OrHowPictures
RepresentObjects” 293
S.H.Vollmer
16. “VisualizingInstrumentalTechniquesofSurfaceChemistry” 309
DanielRothbartandJohnSchreifels
CONTENTS vii
VII. CHEMISTRYANDONTOLOGY
17. “AreChemicalKindsNaturalKinds?” 327
NaliniBhushan
18. “WaterisNot H O” 337
2
MichaelWeisberg
19. “FromMetaphysicstoMetachemistry” 347
AlfredNordmann
SECTIONI
CHEMISTRY AND THE PHILOSOPHY
OF CHEMISTRY
CHAPTER1
INTRODUCTION
TheInvisibilityofChemistry
DAVIS BAIRD
SouthCarolinaHonorsCollege,UniversityofSouthCarolina
ERIC SCERRI
DepartmentofChemistryandBiochemistry,UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles
LEE MCINTYRE
CenterforPhilosophyandHistoryofScience,BostonUniversity
BUTWHATAREALLTHOSECHEMISTSDOING?
Recently,oneofus(DavisBaird)attendedameetingofhistoriansofscienceand
technology spanning all of the natural sciences and engineering and all (western)
periods,ancientthroughcontemporary.Inthediscussionofapaperonstate-of-the-
art history of modern (18th century forward) chemistry, a member of the audience
made the claim that there was very little left to do in contemporary chemistry and
that chemistry departments in his country were having trouble attracting graduate
students. Baird found this perspective on contemporary chemistry both remarkable
andimplausible,andsaidasmuch.AttheUniversityofSouthCarolina(USC)—where
heteaches—chemistryenrolls,andgraduates,fivetimesasmanygraduatestudents
asphysics.Inthis,USCisnotunique.
The discipline of chemistry is, in fact, enormous and enormously productive.
Joachim Schummer in this volume (Chapter 2) makes the point persuasively and
conciselywithdataonthenumberofpublicationsinvariousfields.Withagrandtotal
justshyof900,000papersindexedinchemicalabstractsfortheyear2000,chemistry
islargerthanalloftheothernaturalsciencescombined.AfterBairdsuggestedtothe
collectedhistoriansintheaudiencethatcontemporarychemistrywas,infact,avery
activeandproductivediscipline,ahistorianofmathematicssittingnexttohimleaned
overandskepticallyinquired,“Butwhatareallthosegraduatestudentsdoing?”
“Making, measuring, and modeling ...” is how Baird’s colleague Catherine
Murphy(ChemistryandBiochemistry,USC)wouldhavereplied.Recently,sheand
those in her lab have been making nanorods of silver with precisely controlled,
diameters and lengths (Murphy and Jana 2002). It turns out that the aspect ratio
(length/diameter)hasadramaticeffectonthecolorofsolutionsoftheserods.Short
rods(20nmby30nm)areorange,medium-lengthrods(20nmby100nm)arered,
3
D.Bairdetal.(eds.),PhilosophyofChemistry,3–18.
(cid:1)C 2006Springer.PrintedintheNetherlands.