The concept of element is fundamental to modern chemistry and yet it embodies an apparently persistent ambiguity that has remained unresolved for the nearly one hundred years since it was made official by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists (IUPAC) in 1923. This chapter presents a take on why this definition has the form it does, how it arose, and why it persists. Following the introductory overview, there are two historical sections, one on Immanuel Kant whose imprint on modern philosophy and science persists in various forms, including the genesis and interpretation of the IUPAC definition. Kant initially dismissed chemistry as a science, though he had a lifelong interest in this area. In his later years, his opinion about chemistry changed in response to the rapid growth of the field in the late 1700s. This change of mind had a profound impact on him; he began, but could not finish, a significant revision to his critical philosophy of science. The other historical section is on Ernst Cassirer, founder of the Marburg school of neo-Kantian thought, who wrote about chemistry both before and after the IUPAC definition above. Despite Cassirer’s deep engagement with the cultural and intellectual history and philosophy of science, very little is to be found about him in the literature of the philosophy of chemistry. The chapter concludes with a comparison of Cassirer’s relational understanding of chemistry with Guillermo Restrepo’s mathematical chemistry, and then with Joachim Schummer’s conceptual analysis of the “chemical core of chemistry.”
...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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