Scientific Explanation and the Emergence of Theoretical Chemistry: The Manchester and Paris Schools

科学解释和理论化学的出现：曼彻斯特和巴黎学派

• 批准号: 8911578
• 负责人: Mary Jo Nye
• 金额: $ 4万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1989
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1989-09-01 至 1991-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8911578&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scientific; Explanation; Emergence; Theoretical; Chemistry

There are many different factors which affect the development of modern science. Not only are there the intellectual factors which drive a particular discipline, but there are also influences of adjacent fields, the philosophical milieu in which the science is imbedded, and the institutional and social factors which influence the direction of research, the methods to be used, and the selection of problems to be addressed. Professor Nye is examining this whole complex of influences in her study of the development of theoretical chemistry at the turn of this century. Specifically, she is looking at the interactions between physics and chemistry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the aims of explanation in the modern physical sciences, especially the nature of chemical explanation in contrast to explanation in physics; and the emergence in the twentieth century of a "theoretical chemistry." She is approaching these problems through both the conceptual history of science and the social history of science, analyzing explanations and theories in chemical textbooks, monographs and papers; as well as scientific correspondence and statements on the aims and methods of chemistry and physics; and records and histories of laboratories and research schools. As a detailed case study within the larger project, she is working on a study of aspects of the historical development of physical organic chemistry with emphasis on France and England from roughly 1880- 1950. This case study compares two distinct research schools, over three generations, one loosely associated with training in London and Manchester and the second with education at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.

有许多不同的因素影响发展， 现代科学 不仅有智力因素 驱动着一个特定的学科，但也有 邻近领域的影响，哲学环境， 科学是嵌入式的，制度和社会因素 影响研究的方向，方法， 使用，并选择要解决的问题。 教授 奈在她的研究中， 理论化学的发展 世纪。 具体来说，她正在研究 在19世纪和20世纪物理学和化学之间 世纪;现代物理学解释的目的 科学，特别是化学解释的性质， 与物理学中的解释相反;以及 世纪的“理论化学”。“她是 通过概念历史和 科学和科学的社会史，分析 化学教科书、专著和 论文;以及科学通信和声明， 化学和物理的目的和方法;以及记录和 实验室和研究学校的历史。 作为详细的 在一个更大的项目中，她正在进行一项研究， 物理有机化学的历史发展 从1880年开始，法国和英国的化学受到重视， 1950. 本案例研究比较了两个不同的研究学校， 在三代人的时间里，一个松散地与训练有关， 伦敦和曼彻斯特，第二个在巴黎高等教育学院接受教育， 在巴黎做普通的妓女。