Referring to Chemical Elements and Compounds

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Blumenthal ◽  
James Ladyman ◽  
Vanessa Seifert
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Chemical Substances ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
Descriptive Theory ◽  
Philosophical Questions

How do we refer to chemical substances, and in particular to chemical elements? This question relates to many philosophical questions, including whether or not theories are incommensurable, the extent to which past theories are later discarded, and issues about scientific realism. This chapter considers the first explicit reference to types of colorless air in late-eighteenth-century chemical practice. Reference to a gas by one chemist was generally intended to give others epistemological, methodological, and practical access to the gas. This chapter proposes a causal-descriptive theory of reference for chemical substances. Implications for debates about incommensurability and realism are also briefly noted.

Origins of the Ambiguity of the Current Definition of Chemical Element

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-123
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Earley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chemical Element ◽  
Major Difficulty ◽  
Chemical Substances ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Current Definition ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Internal Inconsistency ◽  
Definition Of

The current (IUPAC) definition of “chemical element” has two parts. The first part describes a concept on which chemists generally agreed when important aspects of the structure of chemical substances became clear by the middle of the twentieth century; the second part concerns a concept which had been important in “the chemical revolution” of the late eighteenth century—but which is not consistent with the definition first given. Although long familiarity has made the internal inconsistency of this “dual definition” of chemical element nearly undetectable by chemical professionals, that lack of clarity still causes major difficulty for logically minded beginning chemistry students. The concept of chemical element described in the second part of the current IUPAC definition has long been obsolete; it should now be abandoned. Retention of an obsolete definition for an important concept is characteristic of what John Dewey called “unmodern philosophy.”

Lambert, Johann Heinrich (1728–77)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunter Zoller
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
German Mathematician ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Analytic Skills ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Lambert was a German mathematician, physicist, astronomer and philosopher, who was among the leading figures of German intellectual life in the late eighteenth century. As a practising scientist, who made important discoveries in many areas, Lambert was interested in philosophical questions regarding the methods of scientific knowledge. In his philosophical works he sought to reform metaphysics by subjecting it to the procedures and standards of mathematics, advocating a combination of conceptual analysis and deductive construction in philosophy. With Lambert the tradition of German rationalist thought reaches directly into the time of Kant, who had great esteem for his analytic skills.

Slavery and Ransom

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Smiley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The State ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Law

This chapter explores captives’ fates after their capture, all along the Ottoman land and maritime frontiers, arguing that this was largely determined by individuals’ value for ransom or sale. First this was a matter of localized customary law; then it became a matter of inter-imperial rules, the “Law of Ransom.” The chapter discusses the nature of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, emphasizing the role of elite households, and the varying prices for captives based on their individual characteristics. It shows that the Ottoman state participated in ransoming, buying, exploiting, and sometimes selling both female and male captives. The state particularly needed young men to row on its galleys, but this changed in the late eighteenth century as the fleet moved from oars to sails. The chapter then turns to ransom, showing that a captive’s ability to be ransomed, and value, depended on a variety of individualized factors.

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