Introduction - Philosophy of Chemistry - page 1

Chapter 1
Introduction

Eric Scerri and Lee McIntyre

It has now been exactly 10 years since the first edition of this volume, Philosophy of
Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline (Springer 2006) - co-edited with Davis
Baird - first appeared as Volume 242 of the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of
Science series. At that point, the philosophy of chemistry was still an emerging
field. Coincidentally it is also 20 years since the two editors of the present volume
met at the biennial gathering of the Philosophy of Science Association in 1994 and
began a collaboration that resulted in an article which remains the most cited one in
the field. 1 Today, we are happy to report that the demand for scholarship in this
area has continued to grow, witnessed by the continued success of annual confer-
ences held by the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC).
These meetings have been held every single year, starting in 1997, at different
international locations, with the 18th and most recent one at the London School of
Economics. 2 Moreover there has been an increased circulation of the journals
Foundations of Chemistry and Hyle; the appearance of numerous topics and articles
in other venues; and finally the appearance of the present volume.
It seemed only appropriate that in considering a second edition of Philosophy of
Chemistry , we kept with the founding principle of our earlier topic, which was to
gather in one place a wide range of new essays in the discipline, comprehensive in