At first glance, the title of this book might suggest a rather narrow focus. However, in probing the history and theoretical status of the periodic table, Eric Scerri tackles several basic issues that merit the attention of both physicists and chemists.
Scerri has been a leading figure in the emergence of the philosophy of chemistry, a new discipline whose fundamental premise is that chemical theories, models, and practices raise philosophical problems that are not adequately addressed by the philosophies of other sciences, especially physics. A particular focus of this field is the putative reduction of chemistry to quantum mechanics. It is safe to say that Dirac’s 1929 assertion that “the mathematical theory of the whole of chemistry… [is] thus completely known” has been embraced by virtually all physicists and a great many chemists. Nonetheless, that assertion has been contested from time to time by both philosophers and scientists and has...
