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The Aesthetics of Molecular Representation: From the Empirical to the Constitutive

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Abstract

This paper examines the negative response to Dalton’s atomic symbols by situating them in the context of the normative eighteenth-century representational system of affinity tables. Aesthetic analysis of the affinity tables reveals them as schema embedded with a potent functionalist empiricism. In contrast, the aesthetics of Dalton's symbols is associated with hypothetico-deductivism and alchemical iconicism.

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Spector, T.I. The Aesthetics of Molecular Representation: From the Empirical to the Constitutive. Foundations of Chemistry 5, 215–236 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025692518934

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