Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Reduction for a Dappled World: Connecting
Chemical and Physical Theories
Hinne Hettema
2.1
Introduction
The matter of how theories in science relate to each other is a key aspect of the unity
of science. For the philosophy of chemistry, this problem is of paramount impor-
tance: chemistry and physics are entwined to a degree where it is sometimes
difficult, if not impossible, to imagine chemistry with the physics removed. Yet
the widespread use of physical theories in chemistry is often not representative of
how these theories are used in physics.
1
This situation raises the question of how these two sciences are related. In the
on the philosophy of science, the primary connection mechanism
between theories is a variety of inter-theory reduction, even while the interpretation
of the term reduction could span a range from the relatively liberal scheme
advocated by Nagel (
1961
) to an eliminative scheme advocated by Kemeny and
Oppenheim (
1956
).
In the philosophy of chemistry, it is commonly assumed that the prospects of
reduction are rather bleak.
2
The main motivation for this assessment is that the use
that chemists make of physical notions quite often violates the uses of these same
notions in physics. Yet one of the challenges facing this assessment is the specifi-
cation of what sort of inter-theory relationships might exist between chemistry and
physics in a non-reductive sense.
received view
'
'
1
The resulting disconnects have led some to question the role of physics and theory in chemistry,
for instance, in the paper by Hoffmann (
2007
).
2
See for instance Woody (
2000
), Scerri (
1998
) and Needham (
2010
) as examples.
