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15In 2002 the American Chemical Society (ACS) asked its members to submit proposals for the "ten most beautiful experiments in chemistry" (C&EN, Nov. 18, 2002, p. 5) and then proudly published the result of the vote in its Chemical and Engineering News magazine (C&EN, Aug. 25, 2003, pp. 27-30). Democratic as the procedure is, it avoids asking critical questions: What is an experiment? What is beauty? What is chemistry? In fact, you need not be able to give an answer to these questions in order to …Read more
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15Chemistry Managers Coping with Environmentalist's Criticism (review)Hyle 3 109-110. 1997.Among the sciences, chemistry plays an eminent role in that it has its own traditional industry. The chemical industry is not only the main employer for graduated chemists. Since the public is more aware of industrial chemistry than of academic chemistry, the industry also represents the public image of the whole profession - and that is terribly bad due to environmental concerns.
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14Towards a Philosophy of Chemistry. A short extract of this paper was first read at the 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Florence, August 19–25, 1995 (review)Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 28 (2). 1997.The paper shows epistemological, methodological and ontological peculiarities of chemistry taken as a classificatory science of materials using experimental methods. Without succumbing to standard interpretations of physical science, chemical methods of experimental investigation, classification, reference, theorizing, prediction and production of new entities are developed one by one as first steps towards a philosophy of chemistry. Chemistry challenges traditional concepts of empirical object,…Read more
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14In this paper we investigate the most important visual stereotypes of chemistry as they occur in current portraits of chemists, depictions of chemical plants, and images of chemical glassware and apparatus. By studying the historical origin and development of these stereotypes within the broader context of the history of art and science, and by applying aesthetic and cultural theories, we explore what these images implicitly communicate about the chemical profession to the public. We conclude th…Read more
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14Book review: Mauskopf, S.H. (ed.), "Chemical Sciences in the Modern World" (Philadelphia 1993) (review)Hyle 2 (1). 1996.It is like an irony of the history of scian excellent job of developing both the ence that philosophy of chemistry positive and negative aspects of this emerged at a time when disciplinary restory. In addition, the authors provide..
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12HYLE Book Review (review)Referring to the Whig Party, the former political opponents of the Tories in Great Britain, British historian Herbert Butterfield once coined the term ‘Whiggish’ historiography for any account that looks at the past from the perspective of the present, as if the goal of the past were the achievement of the present. Thus, a ‘Whiggish’ history of science carefully ignores everything of the past that does not suit the idea of a steady growth of science towards the current state. Strangely enough, t…Read more
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11HYLE Book Reviews (review)It is like an irony of the history of science that philosophy of chemistry emerged at a time when disciplinary research became increasingly replaced with transdisciplinary problem-orientated research. From bio-medical research via materials science to nanotechnology, chemists and chemical approaches are strongly involved in these areas. If the boundaries of the philosophies of science were to be defined by the boundaries of classical disciplines, we would not only get into demarcation troubles b…Read more
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10Inherent Tensions of Chemistry (review)Hyle 3 107-109. 1997.If you expect a nobel prize winner being a crank who can think of nothing but his subject, then read Roald Hoffmann's The Same and Not the Same and test your hypothesis. This book is about chemistry, to be sure - but in the broadest scope including sociology, psychology, ethics and philosophy of chemistry.
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9Teaching Societal and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology to Engineering Students Through Science FictionBulletin of Science, Technology and Society 25 (6): 459-468. 2005.Societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology have become a hot topic of public debates in many countries because both revolutionary changes and strong public concerns are expected from its development. Because nanotechnology is, at this point, mostly articulated in visionary and futuristic terms, it is difficult to apply standard methods of technology assessment and even more difficult to consider it in engineering ethics courses. In this article, the authors suggest using selected scienc…Read more
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7This paper argues that mathematical chemistry (MC) cannot just imitate mathematical physics (MP) but needs to develop its own interdisciplinary approach to avoid predictable obstacles. Although Kant's dictum that chemistry does not lend itself to mathematical treatment was already refuted during his own lifetime, any useful combination of mathematics and chemistry essentially differs from MP. While the latter has a longstanding disciplinary tradition of its own, MC requires true interdisciplinar…Read more
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5Bibliography of Nano-Science and Technology StudiesIn Baird D. (ed.), Discovering the Nanoscale, Ios. pp. 311--316. 2004.
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5Editorial: General Lessons from Philosophy of ChemistryHyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry 20 (1): 1-10. 2014.Editorial of special issue on "General Lessons from Philosophy of Chemistry" on the occasion of HYLE's 20th anniversary.