Chemistry : the impure science /
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Author / Creator: | Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette. |
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Imprint: | London : Imperial College Press ; Singapore : Distributed by World Scientific Pub. Co., ©2008. |
Description: | 1 online resource (xii, 268 pages) : illustrations |
Language: | English |
Subject: | |
Format: | E-Resource Book |
URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11148890 |
Table of Contents:
- ch. 1. Introduction: chemistry and its discontents. The philosophy of chemistry. The image of chemistry. The goals of the book. The structure of the book
- ch. 2. Chemistry and pollution. Chemistry versus natural. Chemistry in literature. Silent spring. "Better things for better living ... through chemistry". Abundance and waste. Courting disaster. Artificial or natural?
- ch. 3. The damnation of the alchemist. Magicians or charlatans. In defense of artifice. Faustian ambitions. From extracts to ersatz. Pure and applied chemistry. Artefacts as hybrids of nature and society
- ch. 4. The space of the laboratory. Chemical recipe books. A space of toil. Seeing at a glance. A purified space. A social space. An instrumental space
- ch. 5. Proof in the laboratory. Chemical experiment as public spectacle. Instruments of decision. The power of scepticism. The price of proof. The limits of proof
- ch. 6. Chemistry creates its object. The different meanings of synthesis. From simple to complex. From fictions to artefacts. A creative process
- ch. 7. A duel between two conceptions of matter. The ancient concept of phusis. Atoms versus elements; two rival systems. Is chemistry Aristotelian? The aporia of the mixt. Mixts or compounds, Stahl or Lavoisier. A vexing question
- ch. 8. Chemistry versus physics. To each science its ontology. The ultimate quest. No matter without qualities. No matter without agency
- ch. 9. Atoms or elements. Mendeleev's wager. Renewing Mendeleev's wager. Who's afraid of reductionism? Between the macro and the micro
- ch. 10. Positivism and chemistry. A variety of positivisms. Chemistry as the model for positive science. Positivism as an obstacle? Positivism versus realism
- ch. 11. Atoms as fictions. Writing formulae. Types and models. Agnostic atomism. Atoms as mediators. The phenomenalist response. The instrumentalist response. The energetist response
- ch. 12. Agency and relations. Elements as actors. Operational realism. Alternative metaphors
- ch. 13. Taming the nanoworld. Bottom-up versus top-down. Rational design. Bio-inspired chemistry. The return of chemistry's Faustian ambitions. The rise of chemistry's philosophical ambitions
- ch. 14. Towards a responsible chemistry. Concerns about the future. The chemist's code of conduct. From prudence to precaution. A new chemical culture?