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The Philosophy of Chemistry Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.1 March 2003 37 The philosophy of chemistry Joachim Schummer Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA, and Institute of Philosophy, University of Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany Although chemistry is by far the largest scientific dis- field by reflections on relativity theory and the notion of cipline according to any quantitative measure, it had, probability in statistical mechanics. Following the example until recently, been virtually ignored by professional set by their ‘founding fathers’, the next generation of philosophers of science. They left both a vacuum and a philosophers of science, particularly in the USA and in one-sided picture of science tailored to physics. Since Germany, made a name for themselves with their numer- the early 1990s, the situation has changed drastically, ous dissertations on relativity theory and quantum mech- such that philosophy of chemistry is now one of the anics. Philosophers of theoretical physics soon occupied most flourishing fields in the philosophy of science, like virtually all of the newly established chairs in philosophy the philosophy of biology that emerged in the 1970s. of science – a situation that has not much changed since. This article narrates the development and provides a The obsession of philosophers of science with theoretical survey of the main topics and trends. physics led them to neglect not only chemistry but also every other branch of the sciences, including experimental Until recently, philosophers stubbornly neglected chem- physics. Relicts of the older meaning of ‘physics’, as the istry as if it were virtually non-existent. There have been generic term for the natural sciences still in the 19th many attempts to explain this strange fact. Is it the lack of century, and the ambiguity of the English term ‘physical’ ‘big questions’ in chemistry, its close relationship to tech- contributed to the confusion of philosophy of physics with nology or the historically rooted pragmatism of chemists general philosophy of science. It was not until the early and their lack of interest in metaphysical issues? A widely 1970s that biologists first reacted to the narrow focus and held view sees the alleged reduction of chemistry to established their own groups together with biologically physics (quantum mechanics) as the main obstacle. If minded philosophers. It took another two decades for a chemistry were only an applied branch of physics, there similar movement to emerge in chemistry. In some sense, would be no genuine philosophical issue of chemistry. philosophy of science now repeats the 19th-century Indeed, some prominent theoretical physicists as well as process of the ramification and professionalization of the some followers of logical positivism fostered that view by natural sciences. making bold reductionist claims since the early 1930s. The exception: philosophy of chemistry in dialectical The philosophy of chemistry before 1990 materialism The philosophical neglect of chemistry There is only one remarkable exception to the rule of Historical reasons for the neglect of chemistry by philos- philosophical neglect. In Engel’s dialectical materialism, ophers are both deeper and more trivial. First, the rise of chemistry featured prominently as a case against what he early-modern epistemology, both of the rationalist and the called vulgar or French materialism. Not only did Engels, empiricist branch (with the exception of Francis Bacon), like Comte, claim that ‘chemical forms of movement’ were was closely connected to the rise of mechanical philosophy, distinct from mechanical, biological and social forms, but which strongly opposed various kinds of chemical philos- chemical phenomena also served to illustrate universal ophy. Second, because modern physics has its theoretical laws of his doctrine. For instance, acid–base-reactions roots in analytical mechanics, which still in 1800 did not could be used to exemplify his ‘law of contradictions’ and, belong to the physical sciences but to applied mathematics, when performed by titration with some colourful indi- 19th-century philosophical debates over scientific method cators, they wondrously visualized his ‘law of change from were essentially about establishing mechanics as a phys- the quantitative to the qualitative’. With their established ical science. Kant’s former dictum that only mechanics is role in tertiary science education and their official task to a science proper because it has an a priori foundation in interpret particular scientific facts, problems and devel- mathematics was an early and influential view in these opments within the general framework of dialectical and debates. That made it easy for Kantians to focus on historical materialism, philosophers of science in Marxist mechanics and ignore the rest of the sciences. Third, countries produced a wealth of studies on modern chemical most of the members of the Vienna and Berlin Circles phenomena, laws, theories and sub-discipline formation. It (e.g. Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach is impossible to review the material here, as there are and Carl Gustav Hempel), who would become extremely studies on virtually every philosophical issue [1]. At least it influential in creating a discipline of philosophy of science, might be said that Engels’ 19th-century framework was were philosophically minded physicists who shaped the liberal enough to elaborate on such sophisticated topics as the relationship between quantum chemistry and quan- Corresponding author: Joachim Schummer ([email protected]). tum mechanics, but epistemologically too naive to deal http://ende.trends.com 0160-9327/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. doi:10.1016/S0160-9327(03)00004-8 38 Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.1 March 2003 with quantum chemical concepts such as Pauling’s from quantum mechanics. Hans Primas [7] devoted a resonance structures. whole book to the issue of reductionism, arguing that quantum mechanical holism does not allow the derivation The vacuum filled from various sides of statements about chemical objects without further As long as professional philosophers did not care about assumptions. Giuseppe Del Re and Christoph Liegener chemistry in western countries, scholars from various dis- considered chemical phenomena to lie on a higher level of ciplines approached the field from different angles, each complexity that emerges from but does not reduce to the from their own perspective and with specific questions. In quantum mechanical level [8]. particular, scholars of chemistry education have always Because the border between philosophy and history of recognized the need to reflect on methods and to work on the science has never been sharply drawn, not surprisingly clarification of concepts, such that most of their journals are many historians of chemistry approached the field by stilla richsourceforphilosophers.Workingchemistsusually dealing with philosophical issues of the past, of which two stumbled on philosophical issues when their own research for some time ranked so high among historical topics of challenged them to reflect on received notions or methodo- chemistry that it is impossible to review the literature logical ideas (Fig. 1). Prominent examples included Benja- here. These are the metaphysical issue of atomism and the min Brodie, Frantisek Wald, Wilhelm Ostwald and Pierre methodological issue of conceptual change and theoretical Duhem, but the series of philosophizing chemists did not progress exemplified by Thomas Kuhn’s treatment of the stop in the early 20th century. For instance, Friedrich ‘chemical revolution’. Of course both topics also attracted Paneth’s work on isotopy made him think about the concept many philosophers, especially the second topic, which of chemical elements [2]; and Alwin Mittasch’s reflection on initiated collaboration and competition, and a flood of case thenotionofcausationin chemistryarosefromhisstudieson studies. Challenged by the historiographic rigor of their chemical catalysis [3]. Faced with the reluctance by colleagues, the philosophers’ case studies frequently did established scientists to accept his own theories and based not differ much from historical work, except by their on his detailed experience in laboratory practice, Michael greater ambition to make them a case for or against a Polanyi challenged received rationalist methodologies of general methodological position, such as pro or con Popper, science by calling for social factors and the role of tacit Kuhn, Lakatos and so on. Yet, picking up chemical stories knowledge [4]. Edward T. Caldin, who as any other chemist as evidence for one or the other general methodology in primarily worked in the laboratory, argued that the then science is hardly a conclusive argument, nor can it count as prevailing Popperian methodology simply failed to grasp philosophy of chemistry proper. This has never been better the role of experiments in the experimental sciences and the criticized than by chemist-philosopher Elisabeth Stro¨ker way scientists deal with theories [5]. in one of the most detailed historical accounts of the Since the late 1970s theoretical chemists, who worked ‘chemical revolution’ [9]. hard on the development of quantum chemical models More than in other historical branches, historians of for chemical purposes, also began to question the naive chemistry approached philosophical issues with a wealth of reductionist, albeit common, view among western philo- fine studies on the
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