by Eric R Scerri (University of California in Los Angeles, USA)

Table of Contents (82k)
Chapter 1: The Case for the Philosophy of Chemistry (1,153k)

This book represents a collection of papers from one of the founders of the new Philosophy of Chemistry. It is only the second single-author collection of papers on the Philosophy of Chemistry.

The author is the editor-in-chief of Foundations of Chemistry, the leading journal in the field. He has recently gained worldwide success with his book on the periodic table of the elements titled The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. This volume provides an in-depth examination of his more philosophical and historical work in this area and further afield.

• Philosophy of Chemistry and the Question of Reduction:
  • The Case for Philosophy of Chemistry
  • Prediction of the Nature of Hafnium from Chemistry, Bohr's Theory and Quantum Theory
  • Has Chemistry Been at Least Approximately Reduced to Quantum Mechanics?
  • Reduction and Emergence in Chemistry
• The Periodic Table, Electronic Configurations and the Nature of the Elements:
  • Has the Periodic Table Been Successfully Axiomatized?
  • The Periodic Table: The Ultimate Paper Tool in Chemistry
  • Naive Realism, Reduction and the ‘Intermediate Position’
  • How Ab Inito is Ab Initio Quantum Chemistry? Foundations of Chemistry
  • Some Aspects of the Metaphysics of Chemistry and the Nature of the Elements
• Realism and Anti-Realism, and Educational Issues in Philosophy of Chemistry:
  • Constructivism, Relativism and Chemistry
  • The Recently Claimed Observation of Atomic Orbitals and Some Related Philosophical Issues
  • Normative and Descriptive Philosophy of Science and the Role of Chemistry