Scerri, Eric (2025) Philosophy of Chemistry, Entry for Handbook for the History of Philosophy of Science. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The emergence of the field and key issues
The philosophy of chemistry began to develop in earnest in the mid 1990s following the efforts of a number of individuals who were initially working and publishing independently, before joining together to form the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC). Of course, some isolated authors had already stressed the philosophical aspects of chemistry and the need for such a sub-discipline (van Brakel and Vermeeren 1981). However, the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science of logical empiricism had a volume of many disciplines but nothing on chemistry since it was considered to be reduced field.
This chapter will not be concerned with what may be termed the pre-paradigmatic phase which has been reviewed by van Brakel (van Brakel, 2012). Returning to the field’s more recent emergence, one should mention the efforts of Michael Akeroyd, who organized the first two meetings of the burgeoning society, the second of which witnessed its formalization in 1997 (Ruthenberg 1997). Moreover, two international journals were soon established. The first one in print was the Foundations of Chemistry published by Kluwer and now Springer, which appeared in 1999. The other journal, Hyle, was privately published by Joachim Schummer beginning in 1997, initially in an on-line format but later also in print. Unfortunately, this second journal has now ceased to exist.
A major issue from the inception of the field has been the question of whether chemistry reduces to physics and more specifically to quantum mechanics. This issue strikes at the raison d’être of the field since it had hitherto been generally thought that chemistry does indeed reduce fully and that there were subsequently no foundational issues in chemistry to be dealt with.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Scerri, Eric scerri@chem.ucla.edu 0000-0001-9775-5829
Keywords:	philosophy of chemistry, origins and growth, reduction, quantum mechanics, chemistry
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Chemistry General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism General Issues > Science Education
Depositing User:	Eric Scerri
Date Deposited:	11 Apr 2025 15:03
Last Modified:	11 Apr 2025 15:03
Item ID:	25042
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Chemistry General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism General Issues > Science Education
Date:	2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25042

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