Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
discipline or research field is your statement valid? That prevents reckless gener-
alizations, broadens one-sided views, and allows one to estimate the relevance of
philosophical topics among the diversity of science. Three cases in point have been
discussed in this paper: the unreasonable extension of the notion of laws of nature
from mathematical physics to science in total; the monist assumption in the debate
about reductionism; and the misleading conception of “scientific realism”. Focus-
ing on the actual scientific practice, which is inextricably linked with human aims
and purposes, philosophical pluralism is rather in the tradition of pragmatism and
strictly opposed to logicism and idealism in the Kantian and Hegelian style. It
brings topics to the fore that both matter in science and to which philosophy can
make useful contributions, such as the methodology of models, the issues of
interdisciplinarity, and the institutionalized forms of realism in scientific practice.
Without repeating the mistake of blind generalizations, the philosophical perspec-
tive on chemistry can thus help enrich philosophy and explore its resources for the
benefit of science.
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