Philosophy of Chemistry

1
Philosophy of Chemistry

• Ashok Pratap Singh

2
What is chemistry?

• Chemistry is in a sense the typical laboratory
  science.
• While astronomers have to get along
• without experimenting directly on the distant
  objects of their attention, and
• biologists have to experiment within ethical and
  legal restraints on more available objects,
• chemistry conforms to, and
• indeed gave rise to, textbook explanations of
  what constitutes the scientific method.

3
What is the philosophy of chemistry?

• The philosophy of chemistry considers............
• the methodology and underlying assumptions of
  the science of chemistry.
• Philosophers of chemistry discuss.............
• for example, whether nature is symmetric as
  between right-and left-handedness.
• i.e., "stereo-specific."
• Left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars
  are the basis of the chemistry of life.

4
The Chemists View

• Chemists rightly feel proud of the fact that
  ............
• they engage the phenomenal world through
  experimentation
• are prepared to revise their theories and
  practices accordingly.
• To the chemist..............
• the philosopherwho conducts no experiments
  whatsoeverlives in a fantasy world and cannot be
  taken seriously.
• From the scientific perspective...............
• philosophical views do not seem very dynamic,
  since they sometimes stem from established
  philosophical doctrines or pre-beliefs about the
  ways the world should be.

5
The philosophers view

• Most philosophers of science believe that
  .............
• chemistry has been reduced to physics and is
  therefore of no fundamental interest.
• chemistry has no big ideas to compare with
  quantum mechanics and relativity in physics and
  Darwins theory in biology.
• Furthermore, given their relative lack of
  interest in experiment, as opposed to theory, it
  is not surprising that philosophers have tended
  to ignore chemistry (the experimental science).
• But.........
• during the past ten years or so there has been a
  significant interest in the field of philosophy
  of chemistry.

6
Reduction of Chemistry

• The term reduction of chemistry generally means
  that....
• all the deep questions in science can be
  resolved by appealing to the more fundamental
  theories found in physics and do not require any
  major inputs of chemistry.
• chemistry itself gets reduced to physics as it
  increasingly uses physical principles to explain
  atomic structure and the periodic system.
• many other areas of chemistry are also approached
  through physical principles rather than by
  focusing on qualitative aspects and observed
  phenomena.

7
Neglect of philosophy of chemistry

• On examining of publications in philosophy of
  science we find..............
• tens of thousands of contributions to
  philosophical problems of physics and biology,
• whereas
• only a small fraction of the corresponding works
  are devoted to chemistry.
• What are the reasons for this neglect of the
  philosophy of chemistry

8
Reasons

• The majority of chemists adore more or less some
  form of scientific realism that gives the objects
  of chemical theories, i.e. molecules, atoms,
  structures etc., the status of constituent parts
  of the world.
• Moreover, the chemists often claim that
  chemistry is one of the oldest human enterprise
  because all changes in the material world involve
  in one way or another chemical processes, making
  superfluous a philosophical treatment of the
  obvious.

9
Reasons

• This maybe because...........
• physics and biology
• with the development of relativity theory,
  quantum mechanics, evolutionary theory, and
  genetics
• trespassed the margins of human imagination
• and shook the traditional views about the cosmos
  and mans place in it.

10
Reasons

• Whereas ..............
• Chemistry,
• during the historical period of its maturing as a
  science, was not involved in answering any
  cosmological, theological or existential
  questions
• but was rather busy providing materials and
  methods for laying down the fundaments of the
  wealth of some nations,
• improving the standard of living of their
  populations and setting the seeds for the various
  environmental and social problems.

11
Conclusion

• Chemistry has a unique place between physics and
  biology in the traditional hierarchy of the
  natural sciences.
• As such,
• isnt it reasonable to assume that chemistry may
  yield a set of issues worthy of increased
  philosophical attention?

12
Conclusion

• In addition, chemistry has traditionally been,
• and continues to be,
• the science concerned with the nature of the
  elements,
• of substance and indeed of the nature of matter,
• again all traditional philosophical questions!

13
Philosophers and Scientists

• Several philosophers and scientists have
  focused on the philosophy of chemistry in recent
  years............ notably,
• the Belgian philosopher Jaap van Brakel,
• who wrote The Philosophy of Chemistry in 2000
• the Maltese philosopher-chemist Eric Scerri,
• editor of the journal "Foundations of Chemistry"
  and author of Normative and Descriptive
  Philosophy of Science and the Role of Chemistry
  in Philosophy of Chemistry, 2004
• Scerri is especially interested in the
  philosophical foundations of the periodic table,
  and how physics and chemistry intersect in
  relation to it, which he contends is not merely a
  matter for science, but for philosophy.

14
Have a nice day !

• References
• Philosophy of Chemistry  Synthesis of a New
  Discipline, Davis Baird, Eric Scerri, Lee
  McIntyre (eds.), Dordrecht Springer, 2006
• Philosophy of Chemistry, J. van Brakel, Leuven
  University Press, 2000
• International Society for the Philosophy of
  Chemistry
• http//ispc.sas.upenn.edu/
• www.uni-leipzig.de