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标题：Sobczynska, D. & P. Zeidler (eds.): "Chemia: Laboratorium mysli i dzialan" [Chemistry: Laboratory of Thoughts and Actions],
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作者：Vladimir Karpenko
期刊名称：Hyle : International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry
印刷版ISSN：1433-5158
出版年度：2001
卷号：7
期号：1
页码：64-68
出版社：HYLE Publications, Karlsruhe and University of Karlsruhe
摘要：What is chemistry. Or more exactly, what is all included in chemistry. Is this science only a less-developed branch of physics. These and similar questions proceed like Ariadne's thread through this field of science as expounded in the Preface of this interesting book, in which scholars from several countries try to give answers. One of the crucial problems stressed in the Preface is the lack of philosophy in chemistry, since this science originat-ed by experiments and basically contin-ues in the same way. As a result, chemis-try, unlike physics and biology, did not develop its philosophy before the eight-ies of the 20thcentury! Instead, it was al-chemy that produced its own philosoph-ical background, though unfortunately erroneous, allowing for the existence of the dreamed transmutation of base met-als into precious ones. It is a matter of discussion, however, whether or not to agree with the authors' claim in the Pref-ace that alchemy was a prescientific form of chemistry. The relation between al-chemy and chemistry deserves deeper discussion that is beyond the scope of this book and should be formulated ra-ther carefully, because crafts significantly contributed to the development of chem-istry too (a detailed picture is given by U. Klein: Verbindung und Affinit.t, Birkh.user, 1994). Another point for discussion is the statement that the main goal of chemistry is the preparation of new compounds. Accepting this view would mean stressing chemical synthesis, but modern chemistry is about more problems than this. Biochemists, for in-stance, deal with transformations of known compounds and search for rela-tions between different processes and for mechanisms stabilizing various com-pounds, such as proteins. We could also mention physical chemistry, with its very blurry borders (see J. Schummer: 'Physi-cal Chemistry: Neither Fish nor Fowl.', in: The Autonomy of Chemistry, 1998), which yet influences other branches of chemistry. These comments on the Pref-ace already document how broad and deep the problems appear when we ap-proach chemistry from the point of view of philosophy. This book represents a valuable attempt to do so, and to discuss chemistry within broader limits, touch-ing such diverse points as its language, its view of matter, and, most of all, its posi-tion among the natural sciences.