Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
The Ontological Autonomy of the Chemical
World: Facing the Criticisms
Olimpia Lombardi
3.1
Introduction
The explicit defense of the ontological autonomy of the chemical world on the basis
of an ontological pluralist view first appeared in a paper by Lombardi and Labarca
(
2005
). Since science has access to reality only through its theories, the metaphys-
ically realist position of God
s Eye, according to which scientific knowledge
indefinitely approaches the description of reality as it is in itself, was rejected in
that paper. From our Kantian-inspired perspective, the object of scientific knowl-
edge is always the result of a synthesis between the conceptual schemes embodied
in scientific theories and the independent noumenal reality. However, unlike Kant-
ian theses, our position admits the existence of different conceptual schemes, both
diachronically and synchronically, and this leads to an ontological pluralism that
allows for the coexistence of different, even incompatible ontologies.
When the ontologically pluralist perspective is applied to the relationship between
chemistry and physics, a picture completely different from the traditional one
appears. Once the epistemological irreducibility of chemistry to physics is admitted,
the ontological priority of the physical world turns out to be a mere metaphysical
prejudice. From the pluralist viewpoint, concepts like bonding, molecular shape and
orbital refer to entities belonging to the chemical ontology, which only depends on
the theory that constitutes it. Chemical entities do not owe their existence to an
ontologically more fundamental level of reality, but to the fact that they are described
by theories whose immense predictive and creative power cannot be ignored.
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