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Chemistry's metaphysics / Vanessa A. Seifert.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Seifert, Vanessa A., author.
- Series:
- Cambridge elements. Elements in metaphysics, 2633-9862.
- Cambridge elements. Elements in metaphysics, 2633-9862
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Metaphysics.
- Chemistry--Philosophy.
- Chemistry.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (77 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2023.
- Summary:
- The place of chemistry in the metaphysics of science may be viewed as peripheral compared to physics and biology. However, a metaphysics of science that disregards chemistry would be incomplete and ill-informed. This Element establishes this claim by showing how key metaphysical issues are informed by drawing on chemistry. Five metaphysical topics are investigated: natural kinds, scientific realism, reduction, laws and causation. These topics are spelled out from the perspective of ten chemical case studies, each of which illuminates the novel ways that metaphysics of science can be informed by chemistry. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
- Contents:
- Cover
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Chemistry's Metaphysics
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Natural Kinds
- Elements, Compounds, Acids and Macromolecules
- 2.1 Searching for a Unifying Property
- Case I. Chemical Elements
- Case II. Chemical Compounds
- 2.2 Natural or Artificial?
- Case III. Acids
- 2.3 Functional Kinds
- Case IV. Macromolecules
- 3 Realism and Reduction
- Atoms, Phlogiston, Molecular Structure and Chemical Bonds
- 3.1 Realism in Chemistry
- Case V. Atoms and Molecules
- Case VI. Phlogiston
- 3.2 Chemistry's Relation to Quantum Physics
- Case VII. Molecular Structure
- 3.3 Unity and Realism, All in One
- Case VIII. Chemical Bonds
- 4 Laws and Causes
- Periodic Table and Chemical Reactions
- 4.1 Laws in Chemistry
- Case IX. Periodic Table
- 4.2 Causation in Chemistry
- Case X. Chemical Reactions
- 5 Conclusion
- References
- Acknowledgements.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Dec 2023).
- ISBN:
- 9781009238830
- 1009238833
- 9781009238854
- 100923885X
- 9781009238861
- 1009238868
- Access Restriction:
- Open Access. Unrestricted online access
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