Imagining the Molecular World: The History and Philosophy of Chemical Structure

想象分子世界：化学结构的历史和哲学项目概要PI将研究关于19世纪50年代和19世纪60年代假定的分子结构的思想的历史出现和发展，特别是关注德国8月凯库勒、俄罗斯亚历山大·巴特勒罗夫和苏格兰阿奇博尔德·库珀等人物同时和部分独立的工作。智力价值这项研究将为科学史上一个关键而被忽视的转折点提供重要的新线索，这是对原子和分子不可见的小世界的细节进行的最早的有经验支持的研究。化学结构理论不仅改变了理论科学，而且立即应用于实际问题，成为最早的纯科学产生技术，改变国家工业的例子。该主题具有广泛的意义：第一，作为独立的同时科学发现的个案研究，展示了国际内部/认知发展和科学的文化根深蒂固之间的紧张关系；第二，作为连接历史和科学哲学的关键线索，即成功地对看不见和看不见的分子世界进行远距离推理的最早例子；第三，作为检验被忽视的主题在图像和想象的科学发现中的作用的一种有启发性的方式，揭示了科学活动的创造性特征。结构化学的历史出现是研究这种内在视觉(心灵之眼)的最好可能的测试案例，因为结构化学需要对心理图像和物理表征进行常规处理，并创造性地利用想象力，正是因为它的研究对象超出了直接感知。更广泛的影响。这项提案中描述的工作有望在三个不同的领域产生更广泛的社会影响：实践认识论、科学教育学和公众对科学的理解。关于远距离推理的本质和心理图像的有效利用的孪生(且紧密相连的)研究重点与认识论、心灵哲学和认知科学中的相关研究有很强的相关性。这里描述的研究针对的是这样一个问题：创造性的科学思维实际上是如何产生新的科学的？使用的方法既不是实验心理学，也不是抽象哲学，而是谨慎的、以经验为基础的历史。出于同样的原因，对科学在过去是如何成功的新的、更深入的理解，可能会在目前向所有层次的学生教授科学的方式方面提出重大改进。这份提案中的材料不仅表明了深入参与经验证据和仔细的逻辑分析的重要性，而且还表明了思维更明显的创造性和玩耍方面的重要性，包括直觉和想象力。最后，该项目将提供材料，帮助科学家、历史学家、哲学家和通俗作家向美国公众展示更全面、更准确和更有吸引力的科学形象。大多数美国人不太了解科学是如何运作的，甚至不知道科学是什么。这里描述的研究具有吸引力、整体性、跨学科的特点，应该具有相当大的公众吸引力，是朝着更好地促进公众理解和欣赏科学的方向迈出的一大步。

Imagining the Molecular World:The History and Philosophy of Chemical StructureProject SummaryPI will investigate the historical emergence and growth of ideas concerning thepresumed structures of molecules in the 1850s and 1860s, focusing especially on thesimultaneous and partly independent work of such figures as the German August Kekulethe Russian Aleksandr Butlerov, and the Scot Archibald Couper. Intellectural Merit The research will shed important new light on a crucial and neglected turning point in the history of science, the earliest empirically-supported investigations into details of the invisibly small world of atoms and molecules. The theory of chemical structure not only transformed theoretical science, it also was immediately applied to practical concerns, becoming the earliest instance of a pure science generating technologies that transformed national industries. The subject has broad significance: first, as a case study of independent simultaneous scientific discovery demonstrating the tension between international internal/cognitive developments and the cultural embeddedness of science; second, as a crucial connecting thread between history and philosophy of science, namely the earliest example of successful distant inference to the unseen and unseeable world of molecules; and third, as an instructive way to examine the neglected subject of the role in scientific discovery of images and imagination, a revealing reflection of the creative character of scientific activity. The historical emergence of structural chemistry is the best possible test case for investigating this inner vision (the minds eye), for structural chemistry requires routine manipulation of mental images and physical representations, and the productive use of the imagination, precisely because its investigative objects are beyond direct perception. Broader Impacts. The work described in this proposal promises to have broader social impacts in three different areas: practical epistemology, science pedagogy, and public understanding of science. The twin (and tightly interconnected) investigative foci on the nature of distant inference and on the productive use of mental images are powerfully relevant for associated studies in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. The research described here is directed towards the question, how does the creative scientific mind actually produce new science? And the method used is neither experimental psychology nor abstract philosophy, but careful empirically-grounded history. By the same token, a new and deeper understanding of how science has succeeded in the past may suggest significant improvements in how science is taught to students at all levels in the present. The material in this proposal demonstrates the importance not only of deep engagement with the empirical evidence and careful logical analysis, but also of more obviously creative and playful aspects of mind, including intuition and imagination. Finally, the project will provide material to help scientists, historians, philosophers, and popular writers to present a fuller, more accurate, and more appealing image of science to the American public. Most Americans do not understand very well how science works, or even what science is. The attractive, holistic, interdisciplinary character of the research described here should have considerable public appeal, and be a good step in the direction of a better public understanding and appreciation of science.