history & philosophy of chemistry

Just wanted to mention two books that I have authored over the past two years.

The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007

and

Collected papers in Philosophy of Chemistry, Imperial College Press, London, 2008.

These are parts of an ongoing effort to inject a more historical and especially a more philosophical take on the field of chemistry. Ten years ago I founded, and still continue to edit, the journal Foundations of Chemistry, published by Springer.

http://www.springer.com/philosophy/philosophy+of+sciences/journal/10698


Philosophy of Chemistry as a new discipline began in 1994 and now has an international society (ISPC) which holds conferences each year. This year's will be in Coburg, Germany at the beginning of August.

http://ispc.sas.upenn.edu/

Some of the more philosophical topics include the question of the reduction of chemistry to physics or more specifically to quantum mechanics. This is one reductive step that is usually assumed to go through unprobroblematically but which is increasingly called into question by some philosophers of chemistry.

The discipline has a large role to play in issues concerning chemical education and the best ways of thinking about and presenting chemistry to students.

Please visit my UCLA website for further information
http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/scerri/


regards,
Eric Scerri PhD