Journal of Philosophical Investigations

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Department, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

By some standards, chemistry is one of the largest scientific fields in the world, a science that is concerned with the "direct influence of molecules on human life" and thus raises ethical, political, philosophical and epistemological questions. In this article, with the aim of examining the development process of this science from a philosophical and historical perspective, relying on library studies and existing articles, the main issues and trends in the evolution of the philosophical view of this science, and the relationship between the philosophy of chemistry and the philosophy of science, focusing on issues in The philosophy of chemistry that caused major revisions or developments in the philosophy of science was reviewed and evaluated. Studies have shown that until recently, chemistry was practically ignored by professional philosophers of science for various reasons, such as historical neglect of chemistry, reduction of chemistry to physics, and lack of focus on the properties and structure of chemistry, and since the early 1990s, With the social organization formed in it and the expansion of scientific activities increasingly from disciplinary boundaries towards problem-oriented research, the situation changed drastically so that the philosophy of chemistry is currently one of the most flourishing fields in the philosophy of science.

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