Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Mereological Principles and Chemical
Affordances
Rom Harr
´
Mereology, the logic of propositional reasoning concerning relations between
wholes and parts, has always been important in philosophy of chemistry, though
for the most part as a set of unexamined tacit principles. Mereological rules have
shaped chemical theory, particularly where it has been concerned with the consti-
tution or nature of material substances. Recently studies devoted explicitly to
mereological principles as they are relevant to chemistry have been published in
the writings of Paul Needham (
2005
), Joseph Earley (
2005
) and Jean-Pierre Llored
and Rom Harr
´
(
2011
).
However, the logic of reasoning about parts and wholes and the fallacies to
which such reasoning can be subject is much advanced by drawing the concept of
'
was coined by the
psychologist J. J. Gibson (
1979
) to refer to the content of a sensory impression.
We see that a sharp knife affords cutting rather than inferring its capabilities from a
physical measurement. We see that a floor affords walking without carrying out
tests. However, the affordances of something are relative both to the way it is
interacted with and to the context in which an interaction takes place. In terms of
familiar logical concepts affordances are a species of disposition for which the actor
and that which is acted upon are the indissoluble components of the being that is
characterized by this or that affordance. Chemists and other scientists can be seen as
engaged in finding out a slice of the gamut of affordances which specific apparatus-
reagent complexes display. In what follows I will show how thinking in terms of
parts and wholes can be elaborated and clarified by seeing chemistry as the study of
affordances.
affordance
into the discussion. The neologism
affordance
'
'
'
