Ostwald energetic theory

Deltete, 2007b] R. J. Deltete. Wilhelm Ostwald s Energetics 2 Energetic Theory and Applications, Part 1, Foundations of Chemistry 9 265-316, 2007. 

This essay traces the development of Ostwald s energetic theory and some applications of it to problems in physical chemistry. The last sections investigate his understanding of the relationship between energy... 

During the early years of physieal ehemistry, Ostwald did not believe in the existence of atoms... and yet he was somehow ineluded in the wild army of ionists. He was resolute in his scepticism and in the 1890s he sustained an obscure theory of energetics to take the place of the atomic hypothesis. How ions could be formed in a solution containing no atoms was not altogether clear. Finally, in 1905, when Einstein had shown in rigorous detail how the Brownian motion studied by Perrin could be interpreted in terms of the collision of dust motes with moving molecules (Chapter 3, Section 3.1.1), Ostwald relented and publicly embraced the existence of atoms. 

The second period, which partially overlaps the first, extends from the late 1880 s until just after the turn of the century. It is marked by Ostwald s rejection of atomism and mechanism — in any of their forms — and by his efforts to provide a comprehensive energetic alternative. In the early years of this period, Ostwald began to doubt even the heuristic value of molecular and mechanical theories. He questioned the complexity of their mathematical development and their reliance on, as he saw it, arbitrary and unjustifiable hypotheses. Increasingly, he viewed many such theories as irresponsibly speculative and unscientific. After the mid-1890 s, in fact, Ostwald s attitude toward even well-established mechanical theories was so hostile that he sometimes denied that they had ever been of any value at all. Several general works from those years consist of little more than sweeping condemnations of the mechanical world-view (e.g., [1895b]). 

No attempt will be made here to discuss the works of a fourth period (which includes the development of his novel theory of colors) that completes Ostwald s intellectual odyssey, except to say that from just before the beginning of the WWI until the end of his life, Ostwald tried to formulate global social and political theories based on the principles of energetics (e.g. [1911 1912 Deltete, 2008a]). There is much to admire in his efforts (Ostwald was internationalist, anti-war, and pro-environment), but they have at best only a vague connection to the energetic... 

---