Conference
Chemical Heritage Foundation
October 4-6, 2012
Chemical Heritage Foundation (315 Chestnut St)
This conference is concerned with material things and processes in the history of chemistry: both things in nature and technological materials. Arguably, chemistry is the material science par excellence, due to its long-standing emphasis on the central importance of stuff in all its variability. Furthermore, chemistry shares with physics and biology a tradition of theory-building, generalizing the phenomena being studied. Historians, philosophers and chemists alike have observed a peculiar ambiguity, or imprecision, of chemical conceptions and theory-building. On the one hand, chemists feel the need for a unifying approach. On the other hand, they are fascinated by the enormous variety of phenomena, thrilled by the uniqueness of each substance and impressed by the peculiarity of every reaction. How did they do justice to both aspects of scientific reasoning?
This conference will address this major challenge con-fronting the chemists' approach at an intermediate level between abstract theory and the matériel of experiment. Middle-range theories, analogies, models, mental images, formulae, orderings of reactivities, and groupings of sub-stances are among the chemists' objects of inquiry to be covered. It is the aim of this conference to track down the history of such scientific concepts and objects and to con-tribute to the understanding of their working modes. How do they influence theory-building at its various levels? Can we discern different types of modeling applied? What is the role of the material productivity of chemistry, and how was synthesis affected by using models as blueprints? These are the questions that such a focus promises to answer.
Register on CHF's website.
Organizers: Carsten Reinhardt and Ursula Klein
Participants:
Marco Beretta
Charlotte Bigg
John R.R. Christie
Mathias Grote
Ernst Homburg
Catherine Jackson
Jeremiah James
Ursula Klein
Seymour Mauskopf
Peter J.T. Morris
Mary Jo Nye
Peter Ramberg
Carsten Reinhardt
Alan Rocke
Klaus Ruthenberg
Thomas Steinhauser
Adam Toon
Brigitte Van Tiggelen
Steve Weininger