Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
discovered to be compound substances. However, since the means for analyzing
these substances further do not exist during his time, one must not assume them to
be composed until observation can prove otherwise.
As mentioned earlier, Lavoisier
s operational conception of element is not
entirely new to him, as it finds echoes the work of Sennert and Boyle. Additionally,
Lavoisier makes a conceptual distinction, very similar to that of Boyle, between
fundamental particles and the unanalyzable substances of the laboratory. However,
because there is no empirical way to link fundamental particles with chemical
elements, Lavoisier refuses to make “any connections between atoms and elements
[for there is], philosophically, a profound distinction between them.”
42
Because
Lavoisier wishes to apply a systematic and entirely empirical method to chemistry
and to incorporate the chemical evidence of the laboratory into a quantitative
system based upon the weights of substances, “chemical analysis and weighing
go hand in hand [
'
] Chemical theories based on anything other than experimental
evidence [and quantitative measurement] are simply worthless, and that [goes] for
every theory of the elements [
...
] that had been proposed by his predecessors.”
43
...
Following Lavoisier
s pronouncements against metaphysical speculations in chem-
istry, no atomic theory could garner credibility unless it could link the notion of
atom to quantifiable empirical and experimental data. The development of such an
empirical and quantitative atomic theory, however, would not occur until the early
nineteenth century and the work of John Dalton, whose ideas will not be discussed
here as they are far beyond the scope of this essay.
'
References
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Banchetti-Robino MP (2011) Ontological tensions in sixteenth and seventeenth century chemistry:
between mechanism and vitalism. Found Chem 13(3):173-186
Bensaude-Vincent B, Isabelle S (1996) A history of chemistry. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA
Boas Hall M (1968) History of the concept of element. In: John Dalton & the progress of science.
Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp 21-39
Clericuzio A (1994) The internal laboratory: The chemical reinterpretation of medical spirits in
England (1650-1680). In: Piyo R (ed) Alchemy and chemistry in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 51-83
Clericuzio A (2000) Elements, principles and corpuscles: a study of atomism and chemistry in the
seventeenth century. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Debus AG (1977) The chemical philosophy. Dover Publications, New York
Hendry RF (2006) Elements, compounds, and other chemical kinds. Philos Sci 73:864-875
42
Levere (
2001
).
43
Ibid
, p. 80.
