Chemistry

Bensaude-Vincent (history of philosophy, La Sorbonne) and Simon (history of science, Universite Lyon 1) present a "historically based introduction to the philosophy of chemistry." They consider why chemistry has long been considered "impure," popularly seen as a source of pollution and academically as less theoretically pure than physics. They argue that chemistry's practical approach to its materials is "more philosophically interesting than applying tired philosophical dogmas associated with an ultimately unfruitful reductive vision of science." They examine the history of chemistry's impure image, the philosophically relevant aspects of laboratory work, the way that the knowledge chemists produce is deeply entwined with the practical operation of their methods, the ambitions of chemists seeking to create life, and the relationship between positivism and the varieties of atomisms that have existed and continue to exist today. At its core, they argue for a particular interpretation of the philosophy of science that chemistry allows us to conceive that they call "operational realism." This second edition examines more deeply than the first the importance of property and potential in chemistry, as well as offering reflections on nanotechnology. Distributed by World Scientific. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)