The notion of nature in chemistry
Introduction
At first glance, talking about the notion of nature in chemistry appears to provoke contradictions, since ordinary language suggests a strict dichotomy between ‘natural’ and ‘chemical’.1 However, taking chemistry as a science of nature, as physikê in Greek, implies that nature is but the object of chemistry. Therefore, nobody should suggest a dichotomy between ‘physical’ and ‘natural’ or between ‘biological’ and ‘natural’, if only for etymological reasons. So, what is wrong with chemistry?
In this paper, I show that the ordinary language dichotomy, far from being only a temporary fashion, is deeply rooted in the history and prehistory of chemistry. The dichotomy depends on peculiar notions of nature, with strong normative implications, that were developed by opposing technology to nature and to God, whereby chemical crafts, alchemy, and chemistry were frequently the paradigm case of technology in pertinent debates. Inasmuch as chemists have adopted these notions, for which we still have evidence today, they define themselves in a peculiar way unknown in all other scientific disciplines and reminiscent rather of technicians than of scientists of nature.2
The first six sections provide a historical outline of what I regard as the most important phases and positions for shaping the notions of nature in chemistry: early Christian views of the chemical crafts (Sect. 1), alchemy (Sect. 2), iatrochemistry (Sect. 3), mechanical philosophy (Sect. 4), the rise of synthetic organic chemistry (Sect. 5), and contemporary drug research (Sect. 6). Since historians of philosophy have, strangely enough, neglected the notion of nature in virtually every aspect related to chemistry and alchemy, I mostly refer to historians of chemistry whenever possible.3 The general history of the notion of nature is much too complex to be reviewed here, so besides occasional references, this study is only supplementary to the general history of ideas as it focuses on the special role the notion has played in chemistry. Furthermore, I exclude the essentialist meaning of ‘nature’ in the sense of ‘the nature of something’.4 Rather than presenting a complete narrative, the sections are to some degree systematically arranged in order to point out the development of the three major notions of nature—static, teleological, and dynamic notions—and their normative implications for judging chemical practice. In the final four sections, I argue for the dynamic notion in chemistry by criticizing the two others. The teleological notion, despite its being the major basis of public judgments of chemistry, arises from the arbitrary choice of plastic metaphors and is rooted at a subconscious level rather than in a reflected system of concepts (Sect. 7). Against the static notion of nature, I argue that the derived distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘synthetic’ substances, despite its wide use, has hardly any descriptive content (Sect. 8), and provides no sound criteria for preferring one over the other (Sect. 9). Finally, I argue that, because of the normative implications of the static and teleological notions, replacing them with the dynamic notion of nature as the object of chemistry requires establishing an explicit discourse about the values and moral constraints of chemistry (Sect. 10).
Section snippets
Chemical crafts change divine creation: the static notion of nature
Once upon a time in heaven, 200 angels under the leadership of Semjasa were conspiring against the laws of God to make love with women on earth. Not only did they satisfy their lust; even worse, each of the fallen angels also taught secret arts to the women, such as magical cures, incantation, the use of medicinal herbs, and various crafts. When God heard about this misconduct from his archangels, he was more than angry and decided to destroy the whole earth. What enraged him particularly was
Alchemy imitates nature: the teleological notion of nature
In one of his famous books on natural history, Albert the Great (ca. 1200–1280) made the strange claim that, ‘among all the arts, the alchemical art imitates nature best’.10 How did this Christian philosopher arrive at the opposite view of alchemy: from changing the essence of nature to perfectly imitating nature?
For one thing, Latin alchemy was not the same as the
Alchemy for the benefit of mankind: the growth of the dynamic notion of nature
As Vladimír Karpenko has pointed out,22 even as late as the eighteenth century (al)chemists felt obliged to defend their transformations of materials against the theological accusation of destroying God’s creation. The issue was particularly intricate whenever new substances were produced, like sulfuric acid, that could by no means be considered an imitation of nature. In general, alchemists only very hesitantly conceded that they were also producing things unknown in
Abolishing the ‘received notion of nature’: the mechanical approach
Though he could draw on many earlier remarks by Descartes, Robert Boyle (1627–1691) was the first mechanical philosopher who published an entire book on our topic, A free inquiry into the received notion of nature (1682).37 Together with other treatises, this book is a key to understanding the theological basis of mechanical philosophy. For Boyle, the ‘received notion of nature’, a teleological one, is how the contemporary ‘school-philosophers’, the
Reinforcing the static and teleological notions of nature: the rise of synthetic organic chemistry
The English term ‘organic’ goes back to the Greek term ‘organon’ meaning tool or instrument. In the original meaning, the organs of a body are instrumentally well-adapted, i.e. organized, tools of the body as a whole. Thus, considering a part of the body to be organic is to employ a functional or teleological perspective. In Aristotelian doctrine, the principle of organization that guides the bodily tools towards achievement of the unified ends of the body is the vegetative soul. This he
Patterns of contemporary drug research
Although it is impossible to prove the impact of the metaphors on actual research without detailed psychological studies, one can at least provide indirect evidence by systematic analysis. In this section, I will analyze the major approaches of contemporary drug research in correspondence to the major metaphors about nature (Fig. 1).
When the ordinary language connotation of the term ‘chemical’ was at its worst, as opposed to the then favorably connoted terms ‘natural’ and ‘bio’, many chemical
The vulgar teleological notion of nature and the public image of chemistry
As has been mentioned already in Sect. 4, the teleological notion of nature in the original Aristotelian sense, if applied to particular inorganic matters, is not that different from the dynamic notion. For instance, in chemical thermodynamics, a piece of iron is said to have a tendency, a chemical potential or affinity, to corrode, i.e. to combine with oxygen in atmospheric environment. If we change atmospheric conditions or cover the piece of iron with a protective layer, it does not corrode
What the distinction between natural and artificial substances is about
Both the teleological and the static notion of nature are the major obstacles to adopting the dynamic notion of nature as the object of science, the only one for which modern scientific methodology has been developed. While the teleological notion is rooted at a subconscious level, the static notion is not, since everybody, chemists as well as non-chemists, distinguishes between natural and artificial substances, suggesting that the distinction has a clearly defined meaning. In this section, I
Does naturalness matter?
If calling a substance natural means nothing other than that it can be isolated from natural resources without further chemical manipulation, the question arises if any normative implications of naturalness can be justified. Are substances that are isolable from natural resources better than those which, to our presently small knowledge, are not?
To answer this question, we first need to clarify what it means if we call a substance good or bad. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are commonly used in an
The dynamic notion of nature in chemistry and explicit values
In the previous sections we have seen that both the vulgar teleological notion of nature in the form of plastic metaphors as well as the static notion with its alleged division of the world into natural and artificial substances are not very useful. If we abolish both notions in chemical discourses, will there be anything missing? To be sure, many chemists carefully avoid using the term ‘nature’, or use it only in the sense of ‘essence’ as in ‘the nature of these things’. However, whenever a
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper to Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Giuseppe Del Re, Roald Hoffmann, Daniel Rothbart, Joseph E. Earley, Dietmar Schummer, Vladimír Karpenko, and two anonymous referees.
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