A Matter of substance? Gaston Bachelard on chemistry’s philosophical lessons

Abstract

Philosophers have paid far less attention to chemistry than they have to physics. It is only in the last twenty years or so that the philosophy of chemistry has gained an important place in the philosophy of science. However, before then, there have been important exceptions to the neglect of chemistry. Notably, chemistry has been very important in the French tradition: Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent has argued that the attention that Pierre Duhem, Emile Meyerson, Hélène Metzger and Gaston Bachelard paid to chemistry had a profound impact on their philosophies, which as a consequence share concerns and views of science, despite their differences. She has maintained in particular that the controversy around the role of Lavoisier in the history of chemistry ‘drew attention to the scientific revolutions’