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59Hydrogen bonding: Homing in on a tricky chemical conceptStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (1): 51-65. 2013.The history of the hydrogen bond provides a good example of the of an important chemical concept. It illustrates the interplay between empirical and theoretical approaches to the problem of delimiting what has proved to be quite an elusive notion, with chemists whittling away at the particular sorts of case with a view to obtaining a precise, unitary concept. Even though there is a return to a more theoretically inspired notion in more recent research, empirical characterisations remain a featur…Read more
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76Duhem's physicalismStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 29 (1): 33-62. 1998.Duhem is often described as an anti-realist or instrumentalist. A contrary view has recently been expressed by Martin (1991) (Pierre Duhem: Philosophy and History in the Work of a Believing Physicist (La Salle, IL: Open Court)), who suggests that this interpretation makes it difficult to understand the vantage point from which Duhem argues in La science allemande (1915) that deduction, however impeccable, cannot establish truths unless it begins with truths. In the same spirit, the present paper…Read more
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61Duhem’s theory of mixture in the light of the Stoic challenge to the Aristotelian conceptionStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 33 (4): 685-708. 2002.The bulk of Duhem's writing which bears on the understanding of mixtures suggests he adopted an Aristotelian position which he opposed only to the atomic view. A third view from antiquity-that of the Stoics-seems not to be taken into account. But his lines of thought are not always as explicit as could be wished. The Stoic view is considered here from a perspective which Duhem might well have adopted. This provides a background against which his somewhat unorthodox Aristotelianism might be under…Read more
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107Contribution to a symposium on Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões, Neither Physics nor Chemistry, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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60Aristotelian chemistry: A prelude to Duhemian metaphysicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 27 (2): 251-269. 1996.In 1904 Joachim published an influential paper dealing with 'Aristotle's Conception of Chemical Combination' which has provided the basis of much more recent studies. About the same time, Duhem developed what he regarded as an essentially Aristotelian view of chemistry, based on his understanding of phenomenological thermodynamics. He does not present a detailed textual analysis, but rather emphasises certain general ideas. Joachim's classic paper contains obscurities which I have been unable to…Read more
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185Le Poidevin on the Reduction of ChemistryBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 58 (2): 339-353. 2007.In this article we critically evaluate Robin Le Poidevin's recent attempt to set out an argument for the ontological reduction of chemistry independently of intertheoretic reduction. We argue, firstly, that the argument he envisages applies only to a small part of chemistry, and that there is no obvious way to extend it. We argue, secondly, that the argument cannot establish the reduction of chemistry, properly so called
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62An Aristotelian theory of chemical substanceHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 12 149-164. 2009.This paper traces the principal thematic developments in Aristotle’s conception of chemical substance as they bear on the evolution of the notion into modern times. A line of speculation is indicated about the interpretation of elemental proportions clearly raised by Aristotle’s discussion but not pursued in his extant writings. Apart from its historical interest, Aristotle’s discussion of substance and mixture has been taken up in contemporary systematic philosophy (Fine 1995), where it is trea…Read more
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33Nature's Principles (edited book)Springer. 2005.This volume presents a wide-ranging overview of the contemporary debate and includes some of its foremost participants.
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35A Mereological Interpretation of the Phase RulePhilosophy of Science 77 (5): 900-910. 2010.Gibbs’s phase rule treats mixtures by relating the number of independent variables governing their state to the numbers of phases and independent substances. For the case of a single substance, it provides a criterion of purity. But where more substances are involved, the notion of independent substance is less readily understood. Textbook writers sometimes use algebraic terminology in ways that are suggestive but cannot be taken as literally accurate. I suggest that a mereological interpretatio…Read more
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49Contribution to a symposium on Alan Chalmer's The Scientist’s Atom and the Philosopher’s Stone: How Science Succeeded and Philosophy Failed to Gain Knowledge of Atoms (Springer, Dordrecht, 2009).
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59Atomic notation and atomistic hypotheses translated by Paul NeedhamFoundations of Chemistry 2 (2): 127-180. 2000.This article was first published as “Notation atomique et hypothèses atomistiques”, Revue des questions scientifiques, 31 (1892), 391– 457. It is the second of a series of articles Duhem was to publish in the Catholic journal Revue des questions scientifiques, in which he presents his understanding of what can justifiably be said about the structure of chemical substances as captured by chemical formulas. The argument unfolds following a broadly historical development of events throughout the co…Read more
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158New perspectives on Pierre Duhem’s The aim and structure of physical theoryMetascience 20 (1): 1-25. 2011.New perspectives on Pierre Duhem’s The aim and structure of physical theory Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9467-3 Authors Anastasios Brenner, Department of Philosophy, Paul Valéry University-Montpellier III, Route De Mende, 34199 Montpellier cedex 5, France Paul Needham, Department of Philosophy, University of Stockholm, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden David J. Stump, Department of Philosophy, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA Robert Delte…Read more
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Modality |
Objects |
Ontology |
Realism and Anti-Realism |
Time |
Philosophy of Chemistry |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic, Miscellaneous |
Chemistry |
Metaphysics |