Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
A species of atoms
; all atoms with the same number of protons in the atomic nucleus.
2.
A pure chemical substance
composed of atoms with the same number of protons in the
atomic nucleus. Sometimes this concept is called the elementary substance as distinct
from the chemical element as defined under 1, but mostly the term chemical element is
used for both concepts. [
http://goldbook.iupac.org/C01022.html
]
The relation between the two sub-definitions is similar to that which metaphor
posits between any pair of subjects. No matter how subtle or great the difference
between them, pairings of this kind open a space, as Ricouer noted, for speculation.
A careful pairing of similarities and differences is, after all, the business of
metaphor. An analogy can be drawn between metaphoric pairings and the pairing
of wine and food: the pairing brings out latent flavors in both. In gustatory pairings,
flavors are amplified or diminished by combination. A metaphoric pairing is more
complex in that it operates in the polysemic medium of language.
Ordinary language is by nature polysemic: individual words, not to mention
phrases and statements, may admit of more than one meaning. Polysemic potential
is further broadened by taking pragmatic and contextual considerations into
account. Polysemy is an aspect of every language but scientific language strives
to eliminate conceptual ambiguity by reducing the polysemic potential of key
terms. Examples of this are to be found in chemical nomenclature and the formal
definition of terms by professional societies, such as IUPAC.
In light of this fact, finding explicit bivalence in the official definition of
at the very heart of chemistry, seems odd. The historical and
disciplinary reasons behind it have been the topic of several articles in the philo-
sophy of chemistry arena.
10
The definition originated with Fritz Paneth in 1931, in
association with his successful work on the status of isotopes, which had been a
vexing problem of early twentieth century chemistry.
Paneth explicitly accounted for his bivalent definition employing the metaphor
of “oscillation” (
Schwanken
) to explicitly note its function in chemical thinking. He
introduced this metaphor in the historical context of the Boyle-Spinoza debate over
nitre:
Boyle
chemical element,
'
'
of volatile nitric acid and a solid residue shows just
that
oscillation
[
Schwanken
]
between the naive
-
realistic and the transcendental meanings
of the terms
which we exhibited above as particularly characteristic of the concept of
element. (Paneth 2003, 136, emphasis original)
This historical illustration comes at the end of Paneth
'
s statement that nitre
'
consists
'
s two-part article (originally
published in 1931
11
) whose purpose was to illustrate the epistemology of specifi-
cally chemical thinking. Though he does not label it as a metaphor, he takes
advantage of the metaphoric potential of this dual-mode definition of chemical
element. The self-reflexive use of metaphor
'
in chemistry potentiates one
s
'
10
See, among others, Earley (
2009
), Harr´ (
2010
), Mahootian (
2013
), Ruthenberg (
2009
), and
Scerri (
2000
,
2005
,
2009
), and of course Paneth (1931/
1962
), who originated this definition.
11
It was translated into English for publication in 1962 as “The epistemological status of the
chemical concept of element” in
British Journal of the Philosophy of Science
. 13, 1-14 and
144-160; it was reprinted in
Foundations of Chemistry 5
, 2003, 113-145.
