Stéphane Sarrade (Author)
Llored, Jean-Pierre (Author)
Foundations of Chemistry
Volume: 18
Issue: 2
Pages: 125-152
This paper aims to connect philosophy of chemistry, green chemistry, and moral philosophy. We first characterize chemistry by underlining how chemists: (1) co-define chemical bodies, operations, and transformations; (2) always refer to active and context-sensitive bodies to explain the reactions under study; and (3) develop strategies that require and intertwine with a molecular whole, its parts, and the surroundings at the same time within an explanation. We will then point out how green chemists are transforming their current activities in order to act upon the world without jeopardizing life. This part will allow us to highlight that green chemistry follows the three aforementioned characteristics while including the world as a partner, as well as biodegradability and sustainability concerns, into chemical practices. In the third part of this paper, we will show how moral philosophy can help green chemists: (1) identify the consequentialist assumptions that ground their reasoning; and (2) widen the scope of their ethical considerations by integrating the notion of care and that of vulnerability into their arguments. In the fourth part of the paper, we will emphasize how, in return, this investigation could help philosophers querying consequentialism as soon as the consequences of chemical activities over the world are taken into account. Furthermore, we will point out how the philosophy of chemistry provides philosophers with new arguments concerning the key debate about the ‘intrinsic value’ of life, ecosystems and the Earth, in environmental ethics. To conclude, we will highlight how mesology, that is to say the study of ‘milieux’, and the concept of ‘ecumeme’ proposed by the philosopher and geographer Augustin Berque, could become important both for green chemists and moral philosophers in order to investigate our relationships with the Earth.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Tamás Demeter;
(2016)
David Hume and the Culture of Scottish Newtonianism: Methodology and Ideology in Enlightenment Inquiry
(/isis/citation/CBB268233178/)
Chapter
Pierris, Graciela de;
(2012)
Newton, Locke, and Hume
(/isis/citation/CBB001500347/)
Article
Jessop, Ralph;
(2013)
Resisting the Enlightenment's Instrumentalist Legacy: James, Hamilton, and Carlyle on the Mechanisation of the Human Condition
(/isis/citation/CBB001201208/)
Book
Mansoor Niaz;
(2016)
Chemistry Education and Contributions from History and Philosophy of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB408296940/)
Article
Laurent Loison;
(2015)
Pourquoi refuser la théorie cellulaire? Le projet d’une anatomie chimique chez Charles Robin (1821-1885)
(/isis/citation/CBB295385739/)
Article
Grant Fisher;
(2017)
Content, Design, and Representation in Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB476625642/)
Article
Kevin de Berg;
(2014)
Teaching Chemistry for All Its Worth: The Interaction Between Facts, Ideas, and Language in Lavoisier’s and Priestley’s Chemistry Practice: The Case of the Study of the Composition of Air
(/isis/citation/CBB545912602/)
Article
Peeter Müürsepp;
(2016)
Chemistry as a Practical Science (Edward Caldin Revisited)
(/isis/citation/CBB332545263/)
Article
Mark Weinstein;
(2016)
The Periodic Table and the Model of Emerging Truth
(/isis/citation/CBB551631097/)
Article
Franklin Jacoby;
(2021)
Acids and Rust: A New Perspective on the Chemical Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB819662968/)
Article
Michael Bennett McNulty;
(2015)
Rehabilitating the Regulative Use of Reason: Kant on Empirical and Chemical Laws
(/isis/citation/CBB187849312/)
Article
Elena Ghibaudi;
Luigi Cerruti;
(2017)
Chemical Substance, Material, Product, Goods, Waste: A Changing Ontology
(/isis/citation/CBB279172740/)
Book
Breidbach, Olaf;
Engelhardt, Dietrich von;
(2002)
Hegel und die Lebenswissenschaften
(/isis/citation/CBB000201227/)
Article
Rein Vihalemm;
(2016)
Chemistry and the Problem of Pluralism in Science: An Analysis Concerning Philosophical and Scientific Disagreements
(/isis/citation/CBB999713526/)
Book
Michael Polanyi;
(2015)
Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB914837869/)
Article
Heymann, Matthias;
(2010)
Understanding and Misunderstanding Computer Simulation: The Case of Atmospheric and Climate Science---An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001024214/)
Book
McIntyre, Lee C.;
Scerri, Eric R.;
(2015)
Philosophy of Chemistry: Growth of a New Discipline
(/isis/citation/CBB594757917/)
Chapter
Sarah N. Hijmans;
(2020)
Chemical Elements and Chemical Substances: Rethinking Paneth’s Distinction
(/isis/citation/CBB430448947/)
Chapter
Hasok Chang;
(2023)
Realismo/antirealismo e chimica
(/isis/citation/CBB813014778/)
Article
Chris Campbell;
Karoliina Pulkkinen;
(2020)
How Mendeleev issued his predictions: comment on Andrea Woody
(/isis/citation/CBB534312169/)
Be the first to comment!