ISBN:
9789400739321
,
1280798904
,
9781280798900
Language:
English
Pages:
Online-Ressource (XXI, 316 p. 29 illus, digital)
Series Statement:
Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science 293
Series Statement:
SpringerLink
Series Statement:
Bücher
Parallel Title:
Buchausg. u.d.T. Chang, Hasok, 1967 - Is water H2O?
Keywords:
Science History
;
Chemistry
;
Science Philosophy
;
Science Study and teaching
;
Science, general
;
Science History
;
Chemistry
;
Science Philosophy
;
Science Study and teaching
;
Wissenschaftsgeschichte
;
Chemie
;
Wissenschaftsphilosophie
;
Chemie
;
Wasser
;
Wissenschaftsphilosophie
Abstract:
Annotation, This book exhibits deep philosophical quandaries and intricacies of the historical development of science lying behind a simple and fundamental item of common sense in modern science, namely the composition of water as H2O. Three main phases of development are critically re-examined, covering the historical period from the 1760s to the 1860s: the Chemical Revolution (through which water first became recognized as a compound, not an element), early electrochemistry (by which waters compound nature was confirmed), and early atomic chemistry (in which water started out as HO and became H2O). In each case, the author concludes that the empirical evidence available at the time was not decisive in settling the central debates, and therefore the consensus that was reached was unjustified, or at least premature. This leads to a significant re-examination of the realism question in the philosophy of science, and a unique new advocacy for pluralism in science. Each chapter contains three layers, allowing readers to follow various parts of the book at their chosen level of depth and detail. The second major study in "complementary science", this book offers a rare combination of philosophy, history and science in a bid to improve scientific knowledge through history and philosophy of science
Abstract:
This book exhibits deep philosophical quandaries and intricacies of the historical development of science lying behind a simple and fundamental item of common sense in modern science, namely the composition of water as H2O. Three main phases of development are critically re-examined, covering the historical period from the 1760s to the 1860s: the Chemical Revolution (through which water first became recognized as a compound, not an element), early electrochemistry (by which waters compound nature was confirmed), and early atomic chemistry (in which water started out as HO and became H2O). In each case, the author concludes that the empirical evidence available at the time was not decisive in settling the central debates, and therefore the consensus that was reached was unjustified, or at least premature. This leads to a significant re-examination of the realism question in the philosophy of science, and a unique new advocacy for pluralism in science. Each chapter contains three layers, allowing readers to follow various parts of the book at their chosen level of depth and detail. The second major study in 'complementary science', this book offers a rare combination of philosophy, history and science in a bid to improve scientific knowledge through history and philosophy of science.
Description / Table of Contents:
Is Water H2O?; Acknowledgments; Contents; Introduction; References; Chapter 1: Water and the Chemical Revolution; 1.1 The Premature Death of Phlogiston; 1.1.1 Joseph Priestley; 1.1.2 Water; 1.1.3 The Trouble with Lavoisier; 1.1.4 Could Water Be an Element?; 1.2 Why Phlogiston Should Have Lived; 1.2.1 Phlogiston vs. Oxygen; 1.2.1.1 Evaluating Systems of Practice; 1.2.1.2 Problem-Fields; 1.2.1.3 Divergent Epistemic Values; 1.2.1.4 Divergent Instantiations of the Same Value; 1.2.2 What Really Happened in the Chemical Revolution?; 1.2.3 Weights, Composition, and Chemical Practice
Description / Table of Contents:
1.2.3.1 The Importance of Weight1.2.3.2 Compositionism vs. Principlism; 1.2.4 What Good Is Phlogiston?; 1.2.4.1 Benefits of Phlogiston; 1.2.4.2 Benefits of Phlogiston-Oxygen Interaction; 1.3 Choice, Rationality, and Alternatives; 1.3.1 Rationality; 1.3.2 Social Explanations of the Chemical Revolution; 1.3.3 Incommensurability; 1.3.4 Between Principlism and Compositionism; 1.3.5 Counterfactual History; References; Chapter 2: Electrolysis: Piles of Confusion and Poles of Attraction; 2.1 Electrolysis and Its Discontents; 2.1.1 The Distance Problem; 2.1.2 Electrolysis as Synthesis
Description / Table of Contents:
2.1.3 Lavoisierian Rescue-Hypotheses2.1.4 "No Winner" Is Not "No Win"; 2.2 Electrochemistry Undeterred; 2.2.1 How the Synthesis View Was Eliminated; 2.2.2 How the Lavoisierian Rescue-Hypotheses Fared; 2.2.3 The Character of Compound-Water Electrochemistry; 2.2.3.1 The Stabilization of Experiment; 2.2.3.2 The Diversification of Theory; 2.2.3.3 Pluralism: Benefits of Toleration and Interaction; 2.3 In the Depths of Electrolytic Solutions; 2.3.1 The Value of Studying Messy Science; 2.3.2 Was Priestley Deluded? A View from the Laboratory; 2.3.3 The Intricacies of Ion-Transport
Description / Table of Contents:
2.3.4 Disputes on How the Battery Works2.3.5 Ritter and Romanticism; References; Chapter 3: HO or H2O? How Chemists Learned to Count Atoms; 3.1 How Do We Count What We Can't See?; 3.1.1 Unobservability and Circularity; 3.1.2 The Avogadro-Cannizzaro Myth; 3.1.3 Operationalism and Pragmatism in Atomic Chemistry; 3.1.4 From Underdetermination to Pluralism; 3.2 Variety and Convergence in Atomic Chemistry; 3.2.1 Operationalizing the Concept of the Chemical Atom; 3.2.1.1 Weighing by Equivalence; 3.2.1.2 Weighing by Combination; 3.2.1.3 Counting by Volumes; 3.2.1.4 Counting by Specific Heat
Description / Table of Contents:
3.2.1.5 Sorting by Electric Charge3.2.2 Competing Systems of Atomic Chemistry; 3.2.2.1 The Weight-Only System; 3.2.2.2 The Electrochemical Dualistic System; 3.2.2.3 The Physical Volume-Weight System; 3.2.2.4 The Substitution-Type System; 3.2.2.5 The Geometric-Structural System; 3.2.3 The H2O Consensus; 3.2.3.1 Chlorine-Substitution; 3.2.3.2 Atom-Fixing Power; 3.2.3.3 Valency, Realism and Compositionism; 3.2.4 Beyond Consensus; 3.3 From Chemical Complexity to Philosophical Subtlety; 3.3.1 Operationalism; 3.3.2 Realism; 3.3.3 Pragmatism; References
Description / Table of Contents:
Chapter 4: Active Realism and the Reality of H2O
Note:
Description based upon print version of record
DOI:
10.1007/978-94-007-3932-1
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