Philosophical Chemistry: Genealogy of a Scientific Field by Manuel DeLanda
Author:Manuel DeLanda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Genealogy of a Scientific Field
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-05-21T08:00:00+00:00
From Personal to Consensus Practice 1800â1900
1800â50
John Dalton (1766â1844), Humphry Davy (1778â1829), Michael Faraday (1791â1867), Johann Döbereiner (1780â1849), Pierre Louis Dulong (1785â1838), Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794â1863), Germain Henri Hess (1802â50), Hermann Kopp (1817â92)
The domain of chemistry in the first decades of the nineteenth century was experiencing dramatic changes. Analytical techniques were undergoing rapid improvement and as a result the number of elementary substances was increasing enormously: from the 33 postulated at the end of the previous century, to the 54 known in the 1830s, to the 70 elements that would be classified into the Periodic Table in the late 1860s. The multiplication of substances constituting the limit of chemical analysis was not only philosophically jarring, conflicting with the long-held belief that the number of basic elements should be small, but also created difficulties for professors and textbook writers who had to transform a growing list of particular statements about the properties of elements, and of the compounds they could form, into a teachable discipline based on general principles.1 The incorporeal or imponderable âsubstances,â heat and electricity, continued to be the most problematic components of the domain. Phenomena of electrical and thermal nature inhabited two domains, those of chemistry and physics, and were therefore associated with different cognitive tools. Electricity, for example, was already being studied by physicists using mathematical models in the early part of the century, at a time when mathematics was not a part of chemistry.2 But there was nevertheless traffic between the two domains. One type of transfer involved the conversion of what was a phenomenon in one domain into an instrument in the other. The best example of this was the Volta pile, an early form of the electric battery that in physics was used to display electricity as a phenomenon but that in chemistry was transformed into a powerful analytical tool, the very tool that had led to the proliferation of elementary substances.
Although in this period most members of the chemical community were exploring the organic portion of the domain, there were some who were attracted to the zone of contact with physics. This was the case of those who practiced electrochemistry, but it also involved chemists who were dedicated to the accurate measurement of a variety of properties which could be used to fix the referent of substance concepts, properties like crystal shape, specific heat, specific gravity, optical and magnetic behavior. Philosophers of science, particularly those who tend to reduce laboratory practice to the testing of predictions deduced from models, have never adequately conceptualized the activity of measurement, an activity that is often a goal in itself.3 In the case of chemistry, one effect of the accumulation of numerical data about physical properties was to prepare the ground for the eventual reintroduction of chemical reactions into the domain. Although some eighteenth-century chemists (Bergman, Berthollet) had already approached transformations as objects of study, their research program was mostly abandoned by later practitioners, and its revival had to wait for the creation of the new subfield of physical chemistry in the 1860s.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Alchemy and Alchemists by C. J. S. Thompson(2906)
The Elements by Theodore Gray(2424)
The Club by A.L. Brooks(2348)
How to Make Your Own Soap by Sally Hornsey(2329)
Drugs Unlimited by Mike Power(2187)
Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith(1602)
Cracking the Sat French Subject Test, 2013-2014 Edition by The Princeton Review(1516)
The Cosmic Machine: The Science That Runs Our Universe and the Story Behind It by Scott Bembenek(1475)
Perfume by Jean-Claude Ellena(1464)
The Flavor Matrix by James Briscione(1358)
1000 Multiple-Choice Questions in Organic Chemistry by Organic Chemistry Academy(1346)
Cracking the LSAT, 2012 Edition by Princeton Review(1336)
MCAT Physics and Math Review by Princeton Review(1301)
Cracking the SAT Premium Edition with 6 Practice Tests, 2017 by Princeton Review(1248)
Synchrotron Light Sources and Free-Electron Lasers by Eberhard J. Jaeschke Shaukat Khan Jochen R. Schneider & Jerome B. Hastings(1233)
Handbook of Modern Sensors by Jacob Fraden(1219)
A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie (Bloomsbury Sigma) by Kathryn Harkup(1210)
Harry Potter All Books: 8 Books by J.k.rowling(1185)
Cracking the AP English Language & Composition Exam, 2018 Edition by Princeton Review(1030)