Article ID: CBB000850636

Tracing Influence in Small Steps: Richard Kirwan's Quantified Affinity Theory (2008)

unapi

This paper presents an attempt to negotiate the familiar historiographical difficulties of tracing influence in science without fear of accusations of whiggishness. Through a close reading of three papers presented to the Royal Society by Richard Kirwan in the early 1780s on specific gravity, proportions and affinity, it seeks to show that the search for the role of influence in the history of science need not be based on a present-centred value judgement of past science. Prevailing historiography tends to link Kirwan's work to notions of definite combining proportions, settling him firmly on the Proust side of the Berthollet-Proust debate and regarding his work as vaguely precursory to Dalton's atomic theory. My reading suggests, however, that these papers may well have had a surprising level of influence on Berthollet's Chemical Statics and should perhaps be viewed through a somewhat different historical lens. I hope to show that the tracing of historical influence can offer valuable insights to historians of science and that when influence is tracked in small steps only, and forwards rather than backwards, we can legitimately follow it without fear of present-centredness clouding our vision.

...More

Description Focuses on the historiographical issues in the examination of Kirwan's science.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000850636/

Similar Citations

Article Quílez, Juan; (2006)
The Role of Theories in Early Studies of Chemical Equlibria (/isis/citation/CBB000741585/)

Article Newcomb, Sally; (2012)
Richard Kirwan (1733--1812) (/isis/citation/CBB001251743/)

Article Mauskopf, Seymour; (2002)
Richard Kirwan's Phlogiston Theory: Its Success and Fate (/isis/citation/CBB000470885/)

Article Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette; (2009)
Le mixte, ou l'affirmation d'une identité de la chimie (/isis/citation/CBB001021112/)

Book Kim, Mi Gyung; (2003)
Affinity, That Elusive Dream: A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution (/isis/citation/CBB000301511/)

Article Rowlinson, J. S.; (2003)
Le Sage's Essai de chymie méchanique (/isis/citation/CBB000300272/)

Article Feng, Xiang; (2009)
Berthollet's and Kirwan's Phlogiston Theories and Their Fates (/isis/citation/CBB000952325/)

Article Akeroyd, F. Michael; (2008)
Mechanistic Explanation Versus Deductive-Nomological Explanation (/isis/citation/CBB000930617/)

Article Kawashima, Keiko; (2000)
Madame Lavoisier et la traduction française de l'Essay on Phlogiston de Kirwan (/isis/citation/CBB000110500/)

Article Kim, Mi Gyung; (2008)
The “Instrumental” Reality of Phlogiston (/isis/citation/CBB000960289/)

Article Kawashima, Keiko; (2003)
Madame Lavoisier et l'Essai sur le phlogistique (/isis/citation/CBB000470206/)

Chapter Akeroyd, Michael; (2003)
The Lavoisier-Kirwan Debate and Approaches to the Evaluation of Theories (/isis/citation/CBB000600081/)

Article Kim, Mi Gyung; (2009)
Entre la physique et la chimie: l'affinité chimique dans l'Encyclopédie (/isis/citation/CBB001021113/)

Article Raffa, R. B.; Tallarida, R. J.; (2010)
“Affinity”: Historical Development in Chemistry and Pharmacology (/isis/citation/CBB000954694/)

Chapter Klein, Ursula; (2009)
In the Thick of Organic Matter (/isis/citation/CBB001020634/)

Authors & Contributors
Kim, Mi Gyung
Kawashima, Keiko
Mauskopf, Seymour H.
Taylor, Georgette
Tallarida, R. J.
Rowlinson, John S.
Concepts
Chemistry
Chemical affinity
Phlogiston
Encyclopedias (history)
Mechanism; mechanical philosophy
Terminology and nomenclature
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
Enlightenment
Places
France
Great Britain
Ireland
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment