SCHC 388 H02 25036

Humanities, HistoryCiv

Notes:

Chemistry is generally taught without reference to its history and philosophical implications. This course examines historical developments and their philosophical implications. This course’s goal is to develop and apply ideas of the philosophy of science to historical episodes in chemistry and compare them with those in other sciences in particular physics. We will discuss in detail the history of the Periodic Table by examining the works of Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer, who independently uncovered chemical periodicity and the philosophical work of Paneth on the dual meaning of the term ‘element’. Two historical foci will be the ‘isotope crisis’ and recent work in super-heavy elements which both further modified the definition of an element. Another area of investigation will analyze how the emergence of quantum mechanics modified heuristic ordering principles such as valence, oxidations states and electronegativity and ‘oversold’ the notion of what can be derived from a wavefunction. Chemical synthesis is one of the main drivers of chemistry and often compared to an art form. It has revolutionized our understanding of nature (e.g. Woehler’s synthesis of urea) but resisted rigorous conceptual framing. With synthesis “chemistry creates its subjects” as Berthelot stated in 1860 and represents a unique perspective as chemical compounds are based on “universal stuff”, namely the elements of the periodic table. This brings up interesting questions of what is a “natural kind” – a question that philosophers have pondered for a long time and might suggest we need to abandon such categories. Another driver of chemistry is the structure and shape of molecules and intriguing questions arise such as ‘must a molecule have a shape?’ or “are orbitals real?”. Original literature will be studied to tackle these problems.Chemistry will be examined using the philosophical frameworks of Kuhn, Popper and Lakatos and the question of chemistry having conceptual and explanatory autonomy or if it can be reduced to physics will be addressed. I will propose that chemistry should be seen as the gateway to other experimental sciences such a geophysics, meteorology, engineering and biology.