The Creative Power of Paper Tools in Early Nineteenth-Century Chemistry

Klein, Ursula

doi:10.1007/978-94-015-9737-1_2

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…These symbols, with their associated masses, could easily be interpreted as atoms. Formulas were part of chemists' work; chemists used them as 'paper tools' (cf., Klein 2001) with which they interpreted mass and volume relations. Some important problems needed to be solved in order to accept Avogadro's hypothesis (using it directly, the substance formulas derived were barely credible!).…”

Section: Atoms For Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Construction of the Chemical Atom: Is it Convenient to Go All the Way Back?

Izquierdo-Aymerich

Adúriz–Bravo

2009

Sci & Educ

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In this paper we present an analysis of chemistry texts (mainly textbooks) published during the first half of the 20th century. We show the evolution of the explanations therein in terms of atoms and of atomic structure, when scientists were interpreting phenomena as evidence of the discontinuous, corpuscular structure of matter. In this process of evidence construction, new contributions from physicists and physical chemists that were incorporated to chemical research acquired 'chemical' meaning, since they were related to research questions that genuinely came from chemistry. Conversely, the core ideas of 19th-century chemical atomism, among which we must highlight valence and Mendeleev's periodic system, provided 'clues' for imagining an atom in terms of the elements adjusted to their chemical behaviour, which changed periodically as a function of atomic mass. With this, chemistry ceased to be a descriptive science and began to be a 'law-based', theoretical science. Little by little, chemistry teaching became the teaching of the internal structure of atoms, which were arranged in the Periodic Table according to criteria and 'construction rules' related to quantum mechanics. We pose the question: 'how can we now teach general chemistry in a way that does not disregard current knowledge about the structure of the atom yet, at the same time, gives priority to chemical criteria, thus making such structure useful to interpret chemical change?'. M. Izquierdo-Aymerich (&) Á A. Adúriz-Bravo

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Section: Atoms For Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Construction of the Chemical Atom: Is it Convenient to Go All the Way Back?

Izquierdo-Aymerich

Adúriz–Bravo

2009

Sci & Educ

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“…Ursula Klein convincingly presents the chemical formulas of nineteenth-century chemists as "paper tools". 31 They did not represent an exterior reality, but rather allowed the manipulation of symbols, a visual display of possible recombinations. Structural formulas provided a sort of simulation experiment.…”

Section: Narratives Of Materials Plotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Chemists' Style of Thinking

Bensaude‐Vincent

2009

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

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This paper discusses the relevance of the notion of "styles of scientific thinking" introduced by Alistair Crombie and revisited by Ian Hacking, for understanding how chemistry shaped its identity. Although neither Crombie nor Hacking applied this notion to individual disciplines, it seems appropriate to use it in the case of chemistry because it helps to address a puzzling issue: how did chemists manage to shape an identity of their own, despite shifting territories and theoretical transformations? Following a presentation of the notion of style, I will argue that the stable identity of chemistry is rooted in laboratory practices, which determined the specific questions that chemists put to nature as well as the answers to their questions. The "chemical style of thinking" is characterized by (i) a specific way of knowing through making, (ii) the concern with individual materials rather than matter in general and (iii) a specific commitment to nature.

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“…Evidentemente, ao contrário dos instrumentos de laboratório, eles não interagem fisicamente com o objeto sob investigação. Mesmo assim, são ferramentas que podem ser manipuladas no papel para criar representações de um objeto científico (KLEIN, 2001).…”

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Doi Desativado

Cunha

2023

DOI DESATIVADO

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As entidades inobserváveis postuladas pelos químicos em diferentes épocas existem realmente, ou seja, em sua dimensão ontológica? Consideramos que no debate filosófico contemporâneo entre realistas e antirrealistas científicos, a ênfase na questão acerca da existência deve ser aprofundada, pois interessa compreender também se essas entidades químicas intervêm ou não nos fenômenos estudados. É por isso que ao propor refletir sobre as entidades inobserváveis, que todos os químicos mobilizam em seus laboratórios, além do lado representativo, teórico, abstrato desse conhecimento, deve-se enfatizar seu âmbito intervencionista, prático e, portanto, operatório e laboratorial. Sustentaremos, aqui, ser possível identificar o que chamaremos de um realismo químico prático e operatório ao longo da história da química.

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The Creative Power of Paper Tools in Early Nineteenth-Century Chemistry

Cited by 13 publications

References 16 publications

Physical Construction of the Chemical Atom: Is it Convenient to Go All the Way Back?

Physical Construction of the Chemical Atom: Is it Convenient to Go All the Way Back?

The Chemists' Style of Thinking

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