Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T12:22:09.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why Water Is Not H2O, and Other Critiques of Essentialist Ontology from the Philosophy of Chemistry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Holly VandeWall
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ellis argues that certain essential properties of objects in the world not only determine the nature of these objects but also how they will behave in any situation. In this paper I will critique Ellis's essentialism from the perspective of the philosophy of chemistry, arguing that our current knowledge of chemistry in fact does not lend itself to essentialist interpretations and that this seriously undercuts Ellis's project. In particular I will criticize two key distinctions Ellis draws between internal vs. external properties and essential vs. accidental properties, showing that at the chemical level such distinctions are insupportable. If essential properties only exist at the level of sub-atomic physics, then Ellis's hopes that essentialism will provide a theoretical basis for a philosophy of chemistry are at best hopes for a very distant future, since the argument that chemical structure and dynamics can be explained at the quantum level derived is purely from analogy to much simpler systems than those chemists actually study. This suggests that we have very little scientific evidence that scientific essentialism is a viable ontology.

Type
Philosophy of Chemistry
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 74 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2006 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers. Edited by Cristina Bicchieri and Jason Alexander , December 2007 , pp. 906 - 919
Copyright
Copyright © 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

Armstrong, D. M. (1978), A Theory of Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. M. (1983), What is a Law of Nature? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. M. (1999), “A Naturalist Program: Epistemology and Ontology”, A Naturalist Program: Epistemology and Ontology 73:77–89.Google Scholar
Beebee, Helen (2004), review of Scientific Essentialism and The Philosophy of Nature by Brian Ellis, Mind 113:334–340.Google Scholar
Carroll, John W. (1994), Laws of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christie, Maureen, and Christie, John R. (2000), “Laws and Theories in Chemistry Do Not Obey the Rules”, in Bhushan, Nalini and Rosenfeld, Stuart (eds.), Of Minds and Molecules: New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, Brian (2001), Scientific Essentialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, Brian (2002), The Philosophy of Nature: A Guide to the New Essentialism. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Brian (2005), “Discussion Notes: Marc Lange on Essentialism”, Discussion Notes: Marc Lange on Essentialism 83:75–79.Google Scholar
Mumford, Stephen (2002), review of Scientific Essentialism by Brian Ellis, Metascience 11:324–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mumford, Stephen (2004), Laws in Nature. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Primas, H. (1983), Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics and Reductionism, Berlin: Springer Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Primas, H. (1991),“Reductionism: Palaver without Precedent”, in Agazzi, E. (ed.), The Problems of Reductionism in Science. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Ramsey, Jeffry L. (2000), “Realism, Essentialism, and Intrinsic Properties: The Case of Molecular Shape”, in Bhushan, Nalini and Rosenfeld, Stuart (eds.), Of Minds and Molecules: New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scerri, Eric R. (2000), “Realism, Reduction and the ‘Intermediate Position’”, in Bhushan, Nalini and Rosenfeld, Stuart (eds.), Of Minds and Molecules: New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Brakel, Jaap (2000a), “The Nature of Chemical Substances”, in Bhushan, Nalini and Rosenfeld, Stuart (eds.), Of Minds and Molecules: New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Brakel, Jaap (2000b), Philosophy of Chemistry: Between the Manifest and the Scientific Image. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar