Philosophy of Chemistry

Description

This volume follows the earlier successful book in the same series, which helped to introduce and spread the Philosophy of Chemistry to a wider audience of philosophers, historians, and science educators, as well as chemists, physicists and biologists. The introduction summarizes the way in which the field has developed in the ten years since the previous volume was conceived and introduces several new authors who did not contribute to the earlier book. The editors are well placed to assemble this book, as they are the editor in chief and deputy editors of the leading academic journal in the field, Foundations of Chemistry. The philosophy of chemistry remains a somewhat neglected field, unlike the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. Why there has been little philosophical attention to the central discipline of chemistry among the three natural sciences is a theme that is explored by several of the contributors. This volume will do a great deal to redress this imbalance. Among the themes covered is the question of reduction of chemistry to physics, the reduction of biology to chemistry, whether true chemical laws exist and causality in chemistry. In addition more general questions of the nature of organic chemistry, biochemistry and chemical synthesis are examined by specialist in these areas.

Description

This comprehensive volume marks a new standard in scholarship in the still emerging field of the philosophy of chemistry. With selections drawn from a wide range of scholarly disciplines, philosophers, chemists, and historians of science here converge to ask some of the most fundamental questions about the relationship between philosophy and chemistry. What can chemistry teach us about longstanding disputes in the philosophy of science over such issues as reductionism, autonomy, and supervenience? And what new issues may chemistry bring to the forefront now that it has joined physics and biology as a serious topic for philosophical reflection? This newest addition to the prestigious Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science series marks the true arrival of philosophy of chemistry within the corpus of the philosophy of science.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Philosophy of Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science)HardcoverSpringer2005-12-21
• Philosophy of ChemistrySpringer2006-01-01
• Philosophy of ChemistryPaperbackSpringer2010-11-24
• Philosophy of ChemistrySpringer London, Limited2014-01-01
• Philosophy of ChemistryhardcoverSpringer2014-11-13
• Philosophy of ChemistryPaperbackSpringer2014-11-16