Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T00:59:36.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Strategic Constraints on Interacting Fields: Quantum Chemistry and Organic Chemistry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2023

William Goodwin
William Goodwin*
Affiliation:
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
*
Email: wgoodwin@usf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The interaction between scientific fields may be subject to strategic constraints—that is, fruitful interaction between fields may require adapting one field to the strategies informing the other. One way the concepts within an interfield field develop is by recrafting concepts originating in one practice in terms compatible with the strategies guiding the other. This conceptual accommodation may be a prerequisite to fruitful interactions between fields with different central problems. I explore these themes by considering the strategic constraints operative in the interfield field of quantum chemistry and the conceptual accommodation required for application to organic chemistry.

Type
Symposia Paper
Information
Philosophy of Science , First View , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batterman, Robert W. 2002. The Devil in the Details: Asymptotic Reasoning in Explanation, Reduction, and Emergence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195146476.001.0001 Google Scholar
Coulson, C. A. 1961, Valence, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coulson, Charles. A. 1955. “The Contributions of Wave Mechanics to Chemistry.” Journal of the Chemical Society 2069–84. https://doi.org/10.1039/JR9550002069 Google Scholar
Coulson, Charles. A. 1960. “Present State of Molecular Structure Calculations.” Reviews of Modern Physics 32:170–77. https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.32.170 Google Scholar
Darden, Lindley and Maull, Nancy. 1977, “Interfield Theories.” Philosophy of Science, 44(1):43–64. https://doi.org/10.1086/288723 Google Scholar
Gavroglu, Kostas and Simões, Ana. 2016. “Philosophical Issues in (Sub)Disciplinary Contexts: The Case of Quantum Chemistry.” In Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry, edited by Scerri, Eric and Fisher, Grant. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190494599.003.0008 Google Scholar
Harris, Martha. 2008. “Chemical Reductionism Revisited: Lewis, Pauling and the Physico-Chemical Nature of the Chemical Bond.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 39(1):78–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2007.11.006 Google Scholar
Hendry, Robin Findlay. 2016. “Structure as Abstraction.” Philosophy of Science 83:1070–81. https://doi.org/10.1086/687939 Google Scholar
Hettema, Hinne. 2017. The Union of Chemistry and Physics: Linkages, Reduction, Theory Nets and Ontology. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60910-2 Google Scholar
Lenhard, Johannes. 2014. “Autonomy and Automation: Computational Modelling, Reduction, and Explanation in Quantum Chemistry.” The Monist 97(3):339–59. https://doi.org/10.5840/monist201497322 Google Scholar
Primas, Hans. 1975. “Pattern Recognition in Molecular Quantum Mechanics. I. Background Dependence of Molecular States.” Theoretica Chimica Acta 39:127–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00550316 Google Scholar
Sutcliffe, Brian and Woolley, R. Guy. 2012, “Atoms and Molecules in Classical Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics.” In Handbook of the Philosophy of Science: Philosophy of Chemistry, edited by Woody, Andrea, Hendry, Robin F., and Needham, Paul. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. Bright. 1976. “Fifty Years of Quantum Chemistry.” Pure and Applied Chemistry 47:41–7. https://doi.org/10.1351/pac197647010041 Google Scholar
Woody, Andrea. 2000. “Putting Quantum Mechanics to Work in Chemistry: The Power of Diagrammatic Representation.” Philosophy of Science 67 (Proceedings):S612–27. https://doi.org/10.1086/392850 Google Scholar
Woody, Andrea. 2012. “Concept Amalgamation and Representation in Quantum Chemistry.” In Handbook of the Philosophy of Science: Philosophy of Chemistry, edited by Woody, Andrea, Hendry, Robin F., and Needham, Paul. Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-51675-6.50029-3 Google Scholar