Chemistry and Hegel’s Logic

Abstract

When lecturing on elective affinity, Hegel referred to John Dalton’s theory of atomic weights. He observed that, although Dalton had been the first to recognize that chemical elements combine according to definite proportions, “he enveloped his determinations in the worst form of atomistic metaphysics”.¹ This rejection of atomic theory did not appear unannounced, for in the remark to paragraph 298 of the Philosophy of Nature, he points out that when he talks about material parts he does not mean atoms or molecules. Since atoms and molecules are understood to be separated and subsisting on their own, they cannot be continuous; if there is to be continuity, two parts must subsist in the same place.