Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement

Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement PDF Author: Peter J. Ramberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351952455
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Offering a comprehensive narrative of the early history of stereochemistry, Dr Ramberg explores the reasons for and the consequences of the fundamental change in the meaning of chemical formulas with the emergence of stereochemistry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. As yet relatively unexplored by historians, the development of stereochemistry - the study of the three-dimensional properties of molecules - provides a superb case study for exploring the meaning and purpose of chemical formulas, as it entailed a significant change in the meaning of chemical formulas from the purely chemical conception of 'structure' to the physico-chemical conception of molecules provided by the tetrahedral carbon atom. This study is the first to treat the emergence of the unique visual language of organic chemistry between 1830 and 1874 to place in context the near simultaneous proposal of the tetrahedral carbon atom by J.H. van 't Hoff and J.A. Le Bel in 1874. Dr Ramberg then examines the research programs in stereochemistry by Johannes Wislicenus, Arthur Hantzsch, Victor Meyer, Carl Bischoff, Emil Fischer and Alfred Werner, showing how the emergence of stereochemistry was a logical continuation of established research traditions in chemistry. In so doing, he also illustrates the novel and controversial characteristics of stereochemical ideas, especially the unprecedented use of mechanistic and dynamic principles in chemical explanation.

Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement

Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement PDF Author: Peter J. Ramberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351952455
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
Offering a comprehensive narrative of the early history of stereochemistry, Dr Ramberg explores the reasons for and the consequences of the fundamental change in the meaning of chemical formulas with the emergence of stereochemistry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. As yet relatively unexplored by historians, the development of stereochemistry - the study of the three-dimensional properties of molecules - provides a superb case study for exploring the meaning and purpose of chemical formulas, as it entailed a significant change in the meaning of chemical formulas from the purely chemical conception of 'structure' to the physico-chemical conception of molecules provided by the tetrahedral carbon atom. This study is the first to treat the emergence of the unique visual language of organic chemistry between 1830 and 1874 to place in context the near simultaneous proposal of the tetrahedral carbon atom by J.H. van 't Hoff and J.A. Le Bel in 1874. Dr Ramberg then examines the research programs in stereochemistry by Johannes Wislicenus, Arthur Hantzsch, Victor Meyer, Carl Bischoff, Emil Fischer and Alfred Werner, showing how the emergence of stereochemistry was a logical continuation of established research traditions in chemistry. In so doing, he also illustrates the novel and controversial characteristics of stereochemical ideas, especially the unprecedented use of mechanistic and dynamic principles in chemical explanation.

Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement

Chemical Structure, Spatial Arrangement PDF Author: Peter J. Ramberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780754603979
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
Offering a comprehensive narrative of the early history of stereochemistry, Dr Ramberg explores the reasons for and the consequences of the fundamental change in the meaning of chemical formulas with the emergence of stereochemistry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. As yet relatively unexplored by historians, the development of stereochemistry - the study of the three-dimensional properties of molecules - provides a superb case study for exploring the meaning and purpose of chemical formulas, as it entailed a significant change in the meaning of chemical formulas from the purely chemical conception of 'structure' to the physico-chemical conception of molecules provided by the tetrahedral carbon atom. This study is the first to treat the emergence of the unique visual language of organic chemistry between 1830 and 1874 to place in context the near simultaneous proposal of the tetrahedral carbon atom by J.H. van 't Hoff and J.A. Le Bel in 1874. Dr Ramberg then examines the research programs in stereochemistry by Johannes Wislicenus, Arthur Hantzsch, Victor Meyer, Carl Bischoff, Emil Fischer and Alfred Werner, showing how the emergence of stereochemistry was a logical continuation of established research traditions in chemistry. In so doing, he also illustrates the novel and controversial characteristics of stereochemical ideas, especially the unprecedented use of mechanistic and dynamic principles in chemical explanation.

EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences

EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences PDF Author: Mauricio Suárez
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048132525
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This volume collects papers presented at the Founding Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association meeting, held November 2007. It provides an excellent overview of the state of the art in philosophy of science in different European countries.

The Making of Modern Science

The Making of Modern Science PDF Author: David Knight
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745636756
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Of all the inventions of the nineteenth century, the scientist is one of the most striking. In revolutionary France the science student, taught by men active in research, was born; and a generation later, the graduate student doing a PhD emerged in Germany. In 1833 the word ‘scientist’ was coined; forty years later science (increasingly specialised) was a becoming a profession. Men of science rivalled clerics and critics as sages; they were honoured as national treasures, and buried in state funerals. Their new ideas invigorated the life of the mind. Peripatetic congresses, great exhibitions, museums, technical colleges and laboratories blossomed; and new industries based on chemistry and electricity brought prosperity and power, economic and military. Eighteenth-century steam engines preceded understanding of the physics underlying them; but electric telegraphs and motors were applied science, based upon painstaking interpretation of nature. The ideas, discoveries and inventions of scientists transformed the world: lives were longer and healthier, cities and empires grew, societies became urban rather than agrarian, the local became global. And by the opening years of the twentieth century, science was spreading beyond Europe and North America, and women were beginning to be visible in the ranks of scientists. Bringing together the people, events, and discoveries of this exciting period into a lively narrative, this book will be essential reading both for students of the history of science and for anyone interested in the foundations of the world as we know it today.

From the Atom to Living Systems

From the Atom to Living Systems PDF Author: Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197598900
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
From the Atom to Living Systems represents an original historico-epistemological approach to follow the passage, in the microscopic analysis of reality, from the atomic to the molecular to the macromolecular levels and then to the threshold of life itself. Naturally, some parts of this journey have been developed in other works, some highly specialized and others of a more general nature. However, although this journey has often been traced in specialized scientific detail, the philosophical implications of the journey have not been discussed to any satisfactory degree. This scientific journey does have important philosophical consequences that constitute an integral part of this book, which is framed within the perspective of systems science and the so-called sciences of complexity, which are areas fundamental to 21st century science. In fact, the possibility of studying and understanding the material world through levels of complexity opens a great philosophical space that proposes to provide systemic and complex explanations, rather than reductive accounts that pretend to explain all phenomena through the interactions of elementary particles while considering all phenomena implicit and deterministic. The systemic and complex approach implies substituting unique bottom-up explanations, which move exclusively from the microscopically simple to the macroscopically complex, with a series of explanations that are horizontal within planes of complexity, vertically bottom up between various levels of complexity, vertically top-down, as well as circular in a manner that renders all levels of reality and the disciplines that study them as both autonomous and interconnected.

New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress

New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress PDF Author: Yafeng Shan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000780880
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
This collection of original essays offers a comprehensive examination of scientific progress, which has been a central topic in recent debates in philosophy of science. Traditionally, debates over scientific progress have focused on different methodological approaches, notably the epistemic and semantic approaches. The chapters in Part I of the book examine these two traditional approaches, as well as the newly revived functional and newly developed noetic approaches. Part II features in-depth case studies of scientific progress from the history of science. The chapters cover individual sciences including physics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, seismology, psychology, sociology, economics, and medicine. Finally, Part III of the book explores important issues from contemporary philosophy of science. These chapters address the implications of scientific progress for the scientific realism/anti-realism debate, incommensurability, values in science, idealisation, scientific speculation, interdisciplinarity, and scientific perspectivalism. New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working on the history and philosophy of science.

The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Science

The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Science PDF Author: Steven French
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472527593
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
Reprint of: The Continuum companion to the philosophy of science. -- New York: Continuum, 2011.

Tools and Modes of Representation in the Laboratory Sciences

Tools and Modes of Representation in the Laboratory Sciences PDF Author: U. Klein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401597375
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
constitutive of reference in laboratory sciences as cultural sign systems and their manipulation and superposition, collectively shared classifications and associated conceptual frameworks,· and various fonns of collective action and social institutions. This raises the question of how much modes of representation, and specific types of sign systems mobilized to construct them, contribute to reference. Semioticians have argued that sign systems are not merely passive media for expressing preconceived ideas but actively contribute to meaning. Sign systems are culturally loaded with meaning stemming from previous practical applications and social traditions of applications. In new local contexts of application they not only transfer stabilized meaning but also can be used as active resources to add new significance and modify previous meaning. This view is supported by several analyses presented in this volume. Sign systems can be implemented like tools that are manipulated and superposed with other types of signs to forge new representations. The mode of representation, made possible by applying and manipulating specific types of representational tools, such as diagrammatic rather than mathematical representations, or Berzelian fonnulas rather than verbal language, contributes to meaning and forges fine-grained differentiations between scientists' concepts. Taken together, the essays contained in this volume give us a multifaceted picture of the broad variety of modes of representation in nineteenth-century and twentieth-century laboratory sciences, of the way scientists juxtaposed and integrated various representations, and of their pragmatic use as tools in scientific and industrial practice.

Models as Make-Believe

Models as Make-Believe PDF Author: Adam Toon
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137292237
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Scientists often try to understand the world by building simplified and idealised models of it. Adam Toon develops a new approach to scientific models by comparing them to the dolls and toy trucks of children's imaginative games, and offers a unified framework to solve difficult metaphysical problems and help to make sense of scientific practice.

Philosophical Perspectives in Quantum Chemistry

Philosophical Perspectives in Quantum Chemistry PDF Author: Olimpia Lombardi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030983730
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book explores the philosophy and the foundations of quantum chemistry. It features chapters written by experts in the field. The contributions analyze quantum chemistry as a discipline, in particular, its relation with both chemistry and physics from the viewpoint of realism and reduction. Coverage includes such topics as quantum chemistry as an “in-between” discipline, molecular structure and quantum mechanics, quantum chemical models, and atoms and molecules in quantum chemistry. The interest of this book is twofold. First, the contributions aim to update and refresh the discussions regarding the foundations of quantum chemistry. Second, they seek to develop new philosophical perspectives that this discipline can suggest to philosophers of science. From its origins, quantum chemistry filled a problematic position in the disciplinary space. On the one hand, it is a branch of theoretical chemistry. On the other hand, it appeals essentially to theoretical tools coming from physics. This peculiar position triggered conceptual questions about its own identity. Inside this book, readers will find updated discussions on the foundations and the philosophy of this complex discipline.