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The Periodic Table and Its Iconicity: an Essay Firenze University Press www.fupress.com/substantia The Periodic Table and its Iconicity: an Essay Citation: J. H. Maar, A. Maar (2019) The Periodic Table and its Iconicity: an Juergen Heinrich Maar1, Alexander Maar2 Essay. Substantia 3(2) Suppl. 5: 29-48. 1 doi: 10.13128/Substantia-582 Retired, Chemistry Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina 2 Department of Philosophy, State University of Londrina, Paraná Copyright: © 2019 J. H. Maar, A. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Maar. This is an open access, peer- reviewed article published by Firenze University Press (http://www.fupress. Abstract. In this essay, we aim to provide an overview of the periodic table’s origins com/substantia) and distributed under and history, and of the elements which conspired to make it chemistry’s most rec- the terms of the Creative Commons ognisable icon. We pay attention to Mendeleev’s role in the development of a system Attribution License, which permits for organising the elements and chemical knowledge while facilitating the teaching of unrestricted use, distribution, and chemistry. We look at how the reception of the table in different chemical communities reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are was dependent on the local scientific, cultural and political context, but argue that its credited. eventual universal acceptance is due to its unique ability to accommodate possessed knowledge while enabling novel predictions. Furthermore, we argue that its capacity Data Availability Statement: All rel- to unify apparently disconnected phenomena under a simple framework facilitates our evant data are within the paper and its understanding of periodicity, making the table an icon of aesthetic value, and an object Supporting Information files. of philosophical inquiry. Finally, we briefly explore the table’s iconicity throughout its Competing Interests: The Author(s) representations in pop art and science fiction. declare(s) no conflict of interest. Keywords. Dmitri Mendeleev, the periodic table of elements, philosophy of chemistry, science and pop art, science fiction. The Periodic Table was incredibly beautiful, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. (Oliver Sacks) An exposition of all that matters in matter. (Bruce Greenhalgh) INTRODUCTION The periodic table of elements is chemistry’s most universal ‘tool’, used both as a teaching method and research instrument. But it is also a sign and icon that unites all chemical knowledge. In philosophy of language, ‘iconic- ity’ is the name given to a certain similarity relation between the form and the meaning of a sign. The lack of similarity is arbitrariness, which means that there is nothing in the form of the sign that resembles its meaning, and simple convention associates the two. We borrow such terminology to claim that the periodic table is truly an icon, not just convention. Each of the little ‘squares’ in any of the table’s representations encloses the totality of chemi- Substantia. An International Journal of the History of Chemistry 3(2) Suppl. 5: 29-48, 2019 ISSN 2532-3997 (online) | DOI: 10.13128/Substantia-582 30 Juergen Heinrich Maar, Alexander Maar cal and physical knowledge about a given element. In A classic example is Carl von Linné’s (1707-1778) this sense the table is truly iconic: it is perceived as being botanical and zoological classification in his Systema so closely similar to that which it represents (the totality Naturae (1735), which became a ‘model’ of classifica- of chemical knowledge), that form and meaning become tion for other sciences as well. It inspired, for instance, intrinsically bounded. Johann Beckmann (1739-1811) to classify technological Since its first formulation, the table has become a activities in his Entwurf einer allgemeinen Technologie universally accepted icon which transits in many places (1806). of knowledge. It transits in classrooms and books as a Chemists too felt the need to classify elements and didactic tool, it transits through research laboratories as substances. Lavoisier himself, in presenting his table a reference source, and it transits in annals and records of elements in 1789, classified them. Each of the four of chemistry as a repository of scientific information groups of ‘simple substances’ presents similar or even and interpretations collected over time. Considering its identical qualities. If we look more closely at a Table of widespread presence, we believe the table parades a dual Affinities, such as that of Torbern Bergman (1735-1784) nature: it is the consolidation of current chemical knowl- from 1775, we will find a classification: each group of edge, but also a heuristic tool used by chemists in their substances presents qualitatively equal and quantitatively attempts to expand and consolidate such knowledge. decreasing properties. Surprisingly perhaps, the ‘tool’ has not changed much After Lavoisier, the concern of chemists in clas- since its conception. sifying became more evident, and we can cite classi- In the words of Scerri: ficatory attempts of Richter (1792), Döbereiner (1817, 1829), Meinecke (1819), Thenard (1813), Ampère (1816), The periodic table of elements is one of the most powerful Gmelin (1842), Gibbs (1845), among many others. All icons of science: a single document that consolidates much these attempts are analogical in form, i.e., elements are of our knowledge of chemistry [and] despite the dramatic grouped together based on how the author ‘perceives’ changes that have taken place in science in the last hun- similarities and differences among the elements’ proper- dred years [relativity and quantum mechanics] there has been no revolution in the basic nature of the periodic sys- ties. There is an obvious challenge for objectivity here, tem.1 as similarity relations of one kind will often take pri- ority over other similarity relations, depending on the Let us next say a few things about how the table authors’ theoretical preferences. None of these attempts came about, from early attempts to find analogies was a periodic classification, however. among chemical elements, to more refined views on The concept of analogy was important to the pre- periodicity. vailing Naturphilosophie at the time, especially in Ger- many. Associated with Romanticism, such classificatory attempts were motivated by a desire to formulate a sys- ANALOGIES tem of thought capable of encompassing both empirical knowledge and a priori, deductive reasoning. Natural The practice of classifying is an important task in philosophy has been gradually eliminated from scien- any science. It is a task that involves obtaining the par- tific thought; thanks to the rise of empiricism. John ticulars (objects) to be classified, finding non-spurious Locke, for example, argued that the prior formulation of similarity relations – analogies – between the object hypotheses and the use of analogical reasoning played and other entities thought to be of the same kind, and a minor role in science – a view consistent with that of 3 drawing empirical and logical conclusions from the experimental philosophy. With the decline of specula- way entities are organised. Scientific disciplines often tive philosophy, early classificatory attempts – except make great efforts to divide particulars into kinds and maybe Döbereiner’s and Gmelin’s – became of little phil- theorise about the nature of these kinds. If one has real- osophical relevance. Furthermore, there is an element ist inclinations regarding scientific knowledge, one will of subjectivity motivating the formulation of such clas- often think of a kind as being ‘natural’, i.e. a grouping of sificatory systems. An author’s philosophical preferences particulars that is made possible by how nature is (and will often play a decisive role in what counts as relevant not by one’s interests or actions). If this is the case, then in analogical arguments, and therefore on how the ele- scientific taxonomies correspond to real natural kinds. ments are classified. Let us see how. And, as Bird and Tobin put it, “the existence of these For Jeremias Benjamin Richter (1762-1807), once real and independent kinds of things is held to justify a student of Kant, some mathematical relations are a our scientific inferences and practices.”2 priori hypotheses – a view he formulated based on his The Periodic Table and its Iconicity: an Essay 31 studies of ponderal and stoichiometric relations. For Getting into the details of such early classificatory him, any chemical classification had to consider the attempts falls outside the scope of this article. But we laws (such as the law of definite proportions, which says wish to highlight the motivation that guides them all: that the ratio by weight of the compounds consumed to find a form of representing observations of similari- in a chemical reaction stays always the same) according ties and order among elements that could be universally to which substances unite to form compounds. Eduard accepted while containing all the relevant information Farber4 and Georg Lockemann5 consider Richter to be known about the elements, their ‘kinds’ (grouping) and the first chemist to consider mathematical aspects in his ordering. theories. This desire for universality sometimes surpasses the Johann Ludwig Meinecke (1781-1823) reasoned limits of chemistry. John Alexander Newlands (1837- from analogy by giving priority to the notion of chemi- 1898) formulated in 1864 his “Law of Octaves”, accord- cal affinity, i.e., the tendency exhibited by atoms or ing to which the ordering of the elements accruing to compounds to combine (chemically react) with certain increasing atomic weight reveals a periodic pattern of atoms or compounds (of unlike composition) in prefer- similarity after each interval of seven elements. New- ence to others. This is, of course, a well-established the- lands’ detection of periodicity was overlooked possibly ory today, but during his time ‘affinity’ referred only to because of the analogy he drew between chemistry and bodies who reacted intensively, perhaps ‘unavoidably’, the musical scale, thought to be naïve and distracting. one with the other.
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