Referring to Chemical Elements and Compounds: Colorless Airs in Late-Eighteenth-Century Chemical Practice (2020)
Blumenthal, Geoffrey (Author)
Ladyman, James (Author)
Seifert, Vanessa (Author)
Oxford University Press
Pages: 69-86
How do we refer to chemical substances, and in particular to chemical elements? This question relates to many philosophical questions, including whether or not theories are incommensurable, the extent to which past theories are later discarded, and issues about scientific realism. This chapter considers the first explicit reference to types of colorless air in late-eighteenth-century chemical practice. Reference to a gas by one chemist was generally intended to give others epistemological, methodological, and practical access to the gas. This chapter proposes a causal-descriptive theory of reference for chemical substances. Implications for debates about incommensurability and realism are also briefly noted.
...MoreBook Eric R. Scerri; Elena Ghibaudi (2020) What Is A Chemical Element? A Collection of Essays by Chemists, Philosophers, Historians, and Educators.
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