Philosophical elements

Tayler, R.J. (1988) Nucleosynthesis and the origin of the elements. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A 325, 391-403. 

Source H. G. J. Moseley, The High Frequency Spectra of the Elements, Philosophical Magazine 26 (1913) 1024... 

Thomas Bayley, On the Connexion between the Atomic Weight and the Chemical and Physical Properties of Elements, Philosophical Magazine 13 (1882) 26-37. Carnelley, Suggestions (note 24). 

Aston, F.W. (1920) The mass spectra of chemical elements. Philosophical Magazine, 39,611-625. 

Six isotopes of element 106 are now known (see Table 31.8) of which the most recent has a half-life in the range 10-30 s, encouraging the hope that some chemistry of this fugitive species might someday be revealed. This heaviest isotope was synthsised by the reaction Cm( Ne,4n) 106 and the present uncertainty in the half-life is due to the very few atoms which have so far been observed. Indeed, one of the fascinating aspects of work in this area is the development of philosophical and mathematical techniques to define and deal with the statistics of a small number of random events or even of a single event. 

What I hope to have added to the discussion has been a philosophical reflection on the nature of the concept of element and in particular an emphasis on elements in the sense of basic substances rather than just simple substances. The view of elements as basic substances, is one with a long history. The term is due to Fritz Paneth, the prominent twentieth century radio-chemist. This sense of the term element refers to the underlying reality that supports element-hood or is prior to the more familiar sense of an element as a simple substance. Elements as basic substances are said to have no properties as such although they act as the bearers of properties. I suppose one can think of it as a substratum for the elements. Moreover, as Paneth and before him Mendeleev among others stressed, it is elements as basic substances rather than as simple substances that are summarized by the periodic table of the elements. This notion can easily be appreciated when it is realized that carbon, for example, occurs in three main allotropes of diamond, graphite and buckminsterfullenes. But the element carbon, which takes its place in the periodic system, is none of these three simple substances but the more abstract concept of carbon as a basic substance. 

By carrying out this combination of semi-empirical procedures and retreating from the pure Thomas-Fermi notion of a uniform electron gas it has actually been possible, somewhat surprisingly, to obtain computationally better results in many cases of interest than with conventional ab initio methods. True enough, calculations have become increasingly accurate but if one examines them more closely one realizes that they include considerable semi-empirical elements at various levels. From the purist philosophical point of view, or what I call "super - ab initio" this means that not everything is being explained from first principles. 

The closet precursor to Mendeleev s table in both chronological and philosophical toms was developed by Julius Lothar Meyer, a German chemist, in 1864. Although Meyer stressed physical rather than chemical properties, his table bears remarkable similarity to the one that Mendeleev would develop five years later. For a number of reasons, Meyer s prominence in tlte history books never matched Mendeleev s. There was an untimely delay in the publication of his most elaborate periodic table, and, perliaps more important, Meyer—unlike Mendeleev—hesitated to make predictions about unknown elements. 

Elements. By organizing the elements as he did. Mendeleev took a stand on the centuries-old question of the philosophical status of the elements. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Mendeleev reacted tire suggestion that the periodic system implied the existence of any form of primary matter of which all the... 

This morc-philosophicai view of Ihc elements has come to the rescue of chemistry as its own field, rather than simply a pari of physics, on more than one occasion. It suggests that chemistry possesses an essential philoscphlcal foundation even though It Is popularly presumed lo reduce to quantum physics and thus to be devoid of a philosophical character. In the early years of the 20th century, when Isotopes of many elements were discovered, it suddenly seemed as if the number of "elements," in the sense of simplest substances, that can be Isolated had multiplied. Some chemists believed that this proliferation would signal the demise of the periodic table, which would give way to a table of Ihe isotopes. 

Discussions concerning the fundamental importance of the concept of "element" have been published by a number of historians and philosophers of chemistry in recent years [1-5]. In addition, some chemists have begun to elaborate their... 

However, an important development within atomic physics, namely the discovery of isotopy in the 1910s, led some philosophically minded chemists to reexamine Mendeleev s distinction and to rehabilitate it in a modified form. With the rapid discovery of isotopes it began to seem as though there were far more "elements" than the 90 or so which were displayed on periodic tables at the time. The work of Soddy [14], in particular, served to clarify the situation, and one that had been anticipated by Crookes,... 

But what would become of Mendeleev s periodic system which now seemed to consist of 300 or so "elements" To some chemists, the discovery of isotopes implied the end of the periodic system as it was known.3 These chemists suggested that it would be necessary to consider the individual new isotopes as the new "elements." But the chemist Paneth adopted a less reductionist approach, arguing that the periodic table of the familiar chemical elements should be retained because it dealt with the "elements" that were of interest to chemists. A justification for this view was provided by the fact that, with a few exceptions, the chemical properties of isotopes of the same element are indistinguishable.4 Moreover, Paneth appealed to Mendeleev s distinction between the two senses of the concept of an "element" in order to provide a philosophical rationale for the retention of the chemist s periodic table. Paneth argued that the discovery of isotopes of the elements represents the discovery of new elements as simple substances, whereas periodic... 

Much more recently it has been suggested that the key to Mendeleev s success, when compared with his competitors like Lothar Meyer, lay precisely in the former s adherence to this philosophical distinction [17]. Even more recently some authors have suggested that the distinction might play a role in the question of the placement of the elements hydrogen and helium in the periodic system [6, 18].6... 

Of course it is important to distinguish between the shape of the periodic table, which is admittedly a matter of choice or convention, from tables that actually place certain elements in different groups. The point is not whether one should favor a tabular form, in which periods end abruptly, over circular displays which emphasize the continuity of the sequence of the elements for example. The question is rather whether to favor a table that places the element helium among the noble gases, when compared with tables that place this element among the alkaline earths. The wider question is whether elemental classification is an objective matter of fact or whether it is a matter of convention. It is the question of whether helium, for example, has a natural kinship with the noble gases or with the alkaline earths. Or as philosophers of science are apt to say, it is the question of whether or not groups, or families of elements, represent natural kinds. 

This book contains key articles by Eric Sc erri, the leading authority on the history and philosophy of the periodic table of the elements and the author of a best-selling book on the subject. The articles explore a range of topics such as the historical evolution of the periodic system as well as its philosophical status and its relationship to modern quan um physics. This volume contains some in-depth research papers from journals in history and philosophy of science, as well as quantum chemistry. Other articles are from more accessible magazines like American Scientist. The author has also provided an extensive new introduction in orck rto integrate this work covering a pc riocl of two decades.This must-have publication is completely unique as there is nothing of this form currently available on the market. 

Ellern (Ref 4, pp26—7 65—6) reports that Paracelsus (1490-1541), physician and philosopher on the nature of man and the origin of sickness, seems to have been the fust to discover the element of fire in the residue of the pyrogenic... 

It is certainly more philosophical question as to whether a known process that becomes entirely better or otherwise different is to be called new or old with a new complexion. It is - chemically speaking - even more difficult when better or otherwise different refer to imdertaking a new elemental pathway, i.e. to following a different reaction mechanism. 

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