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Acidity: The Persistence of the Everyday in the Scientific
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Abstract
Acidity provides an interesting example of an everyday concept that developed fully into a scientific one; it is one of the oldest concepts in chemistry and remains an important one. However, up to now there has been no unity to it. Currently two standard theoretical definitions coexist (Br⊘nsted and Lowry's and Lewis's); the standard laboratory measure of acidity, namely the pH, only corresponds directly to the Br⊘nsted-Lowry concept. The lasting identity of the acidity concept in modern chemistry is based on the persistence of the quotidian concept. This is suggestive for considerations of other scientific concepts.
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- Everyday Concepts and Scientific Concepts
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- Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association
Footnotes
I thank my research assistant Shahar Avin for a valuable textbook survey that informed the content of section 2 of this article significantly. I am grateful to Sophia Efstathiou and Anna Alexandrova for inviting me to participate in the PSA session where this article was first presented and Greg Radick for his collaboration in the session.
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