Chemistry: the impure science

What do you associate with chemistry? Explosions, innovative materials, plastics, pollution? The public's confused and contradictory conception of chemistry as basic science, industrial producer and polluter contributes to what we present in this book as chemistry's image as an impure science. Historically, chemistry has always been viewed as impure both in terms of its academic status and its role in transforming modern society. While exploring the history of this science we argue for a characteristic philosophical approach that distinguishes chemistry from physics. This reflection leads us to a philosophical stance that we characterise as operational realism. In this new expanded edition we delve deeper into the questions of properties and potentials that are so important for this philosophy that is based on the manipulation of matter rather than the construction of theories.

Ch. 1. Introduction: chemistry and its discontents. The philosophy of chemistry. The image of chemistry. The goals of the book. The structure of the book -- ch. 2. Chemistry and pollution. Chemical versus natural. Chemistry in literature. Silent spring. "Better things for better living ... through chemistry". Abundance and waste. Courting disaster. Artificial or natural? -- ch. 3. The damnation of the alchemist. Magicians or charlatans. In defence of artifice. Faustian ambitions. From extracts to ersatz. Pure and applied chemistry. Artefacts as hybrids of nature and society -- ch. 4. The space of the laboratory. Chemical recipe books. A space of toil. Seeing at a glance. A purified space. A social space. An instrumental space -- ch. 5. Proof in the laboratory. Chemical experiment as public spectacle. Instruments of decision. The power of scepticism. The price of proof. The limits of proof -- ch. 6. Chemistry creates its object. The different meanings of synthesis. From simple to complex. From fictions to artefacts. A creative process -- ch. 7. A duel between two conceptions of matter. The ancient concept of Phusis. Atoms versus elements: two rival systems. Is chemistry Aristotelia…