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Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry Edited by eric scerri and grant fisher 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America © Oxford University Press 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Scerri, Eric R., editor. | Fisher, Grant (Grant Andrew), editor. Title: Essays in the philosophy of chemistry / edited by Eric Scerri and Grant Fisher. Description: Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2015] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015031319 | ISBN 978-0-19-049459-9 Subjects: LCSH: Chemistry—Philosophy. Classification: LCC QD6 .E87 2015 | DDC 540.1—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015031319 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by Sheridan, USA Eric Scerri would like to dedicate this volume to his late mother, Ines, who passed away in 2015 and who spent a good deal of her life in nurturing and encouraging his academic interests. Grant Fisher dedicates this volume to his late mother, Jeannette. The editors together also dedicate the volume to the Estonian philosopher of science, Rein Vihalemm, one of our contributors to this volume, who passed away in 2015. CONTENTS Contributors ix Introduction 3 PART ONE History and Philosophy of Chemistry CHAPTER 1 Alan Chalmers. Robert Boyle’s Corpuscular Chemistry: Atomism before its Time 15 CHAPTER 2 Nicholas W. Best. What Was Revolutionary about the Chemical Revolution? 37 CHAPTER 3 Kostas Gavroglu & Ana Simões. Philosophical Issues in (Sub)Disciplinary Contexts. The Case of Quantum Chemistry 60 PART TWO Reduction and Explanation CHAPTER 4 Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino & Jean-Pierre Noël Llored. Reality Without Reification: Philosophy of Chemistry’s Contribution to Philosophy of Mind 83 CHAPTER 5 Lee McIntyre. Who’s Afraid of Supervenient Laws? 111 CHAPTER 6 Eric R. Scerri. The Changing Views of a Philosopher of Chemistry on the Question of Reduction 125 CHAPTER 7 Noretta Koertge. Contingencies in Chemical Explanation 144 CHAPTER 8 Richard M. Pagni. Reaction Mechanisms 154 PART THREE Metaphysical Issues CHAPTER 9 Rom Harré. Causality in Chemistry: Regularities and Agencies 179 CHAPTER 10 Joseph E. Earley, Sr. How Properties Hold Together in Substances 199 CHAPTER 11 Hasok Chang. Scientific Realism and Chemistry 234 CHAPTER 12 Robin Findlay Hendry. Natural Kinds in Chemistry 253 PART FOUR Theory and Practice CHAPTER 13 Hinne Hettema. Chemistry and “The Theoretician’s Dilemma” 279 CHAPTER 14 Grant Fisher. Divergence, Diagnostics, and a Dichotomy of Methods 306 CHAPTER 15 Guillermo Restrepo. Mathematical Chemistry, a New Discipline 332 CHAPTER 16 Rein Vihalemm. Science, φ-Science, and the Dual Character of Chemistry 352 Index 381 viii | Contents Contributors Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino, Department of Philosophy, Florida Atlantic University. Nicholas W. Best, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University. Alan Chalmers, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney. Hasok Chang, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. Joseph E. Earley, Sr., Department of Chemistry, Georgetown University. Grant Fisher, Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Kostas Gavroglu, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens. Rom Harré, Department of Psychology, Georgetown University and Linacre College, University of Oxford. Robin Findlay Hendry, Department of Philosophy, Durham University. Hinne Hettema, Department of Philosophy, The University of Auckland. Noretta Koertge, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University. Jean-Pierre Noël Llored, Linacre College, University of Oxford and SPHERE, Paris Diderot University. Lee McIntyre, Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University. Richard M. Pagni, Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee. Guillermo Restrepo, Laboratorio de Química Teórica, Universidad de Pamplona. Eric R. Scerri, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles. Ana Simões, Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e Tecnologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa. Rein Vihalemm, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, University of Tartu. Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry Introduction eric scerri and granT fisher The philosophy of chemisTry emerged in Europe during the 1990s—or to be more precise, in the year 1994.1 Since that time, the field has grown in stature and importance, offering a unique perspective on chemistry and its place within the natural sciences. For example, the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC) was formally established in 1997, following some earlier gatherings among the early enthusiasts of the field, and has held meetings every year since. The journal of the society, Foundations of Chemistry, began appearing in 1999 and is now in its sixteenth year of publication, with full recognition from the Science Citation Index.2 But the emergence of the philosophy of chemistry has hardly been an easy process. As Joachim Schummer points out in his editorial for the journal Hyle, the other journal dedicated to the philosophy of chemistry, the philosophy of chemistry had been mostly ignored as a field, in contrast to that of physics and, later, biology.3 This seems to have been due to a rather conservative, and at times implicitly reductionist, philosophy of physics whose voice seemed to speak for the gen- eral philosophy of science. It has taken an enormous effort by dedicated schol- ars around the globe to get beyond the idea that chemistry merely provides case studies for established metaphysical and epistemological doctrines in the philosophy of physics. These efforts have resulted in both definitive declara- tions of the philosophy of chemistry to be an autonomous field of inquiry and a number of edited volumes and monographs.4 1 A number of articles have examined the state and growth of the discipline, including Van Brakel, J., Vermeeren, H., “On the philosophy of chemistry,” Philosophy Research Archives, 7, 1405–56, 1981; Scerri, E.R. & McIntyre, L. (1997) “The case for the philosophy of chemistry,” Synthese 111: 213–232, 1997; Van Brakel, J., “Philosophy of science and philosophy of chemistry,” Hyle, 20, 11–57, 2014. 2 Foundations of Chemistry, http://www.springer.com/philosophy/epistemology+and+philosophy +of+science/journal/10698. 3 Schummer, J., Editorial for the Special Issue on “‘General Lessons from the Philosophy of Chemistry’ on the Occasion of the Twentieth Anniversary of Hyle,” Hyle 20: 1–10, 2014. 4 We have gathered below what we hope is a complete bibliography on all monographs and edited collections on the philosophy of chemistry and closely related topics. Philosophy of chemistry, like any other field of inquiry, has a historical and social context. But from a broad conceptual perspective, its birth pains seem difficult to reconcile with a rather obvious property of chemistry: Within the natural sciences, chemistry’s domain borders both physics and biology. In this regard, philosophy of chemistry is potentially unrivalled in its philosophical im- portance within the philosophy of natural sciences. Since it shares it boundaries with both physics and biology, no other discipline has the capacity to do more to edify the complex interactions between the life and physical sciences. Philosophy of chemistry is quite literally at the heart of the philosophies of natural sciences. It is for this reason, among numerous others, that the present volume collec- tively expresses issues, topics, and problems in a field that has its own voice, its own agenda, and its own projects. But engaging with philosophy of chemistry is an opportunity for a deeper understanding of chemistry and the natural sci- ences generally. This volume explores the ways in which this might be achieved. The philosophy of chemistry is still a young field, yet it has rapidly estab- lished a recognized infrastructure for the dissemination of research through its journals, societies, and meetings.5 This is a measure of both the interest in the field and a commitment to its long-term development. The current volume represent a stage in the development of the philosophy of chemistry, providing a repository for some of the best current thought in the field, and a guide for both the initiated and uninitiated. It serves to map out some of the distinctive features of the philosophy of chemistry, to establish recent developments in the field as chemistry evolves as a set of dynamic
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