The certainty that natural phenomena and processes could be represented in a physical space ruled by Euclidean geometry was a fundamental epistemological assumption of theoretical creation in classical science. The possibility of a mathematical analysis of the continuum ensured an intuitive, pictorial description of mobile trajectories as studied in dynamics, as well as a precise determination of the effects generated within causal relations. These convictions and assumptions had to be reviewed when the Plank action quantum forced the development of a (...) new physics of atomic systems. Consequences, nevertheless, transcended the scope of Physics and extended to all regions of natural science, including Biology, which had to be built under the conceptual coverage of the nascent mechanics. The present work is a reflection on the philosophical problems posed by the encounter of physics of atoms and chemistry of molecules. (shrink)

La convicción de que los fenómenos y procesos naturales podían ser representados en un espacio físico regido por la geometría euclídea actuó en la ciencia clásica como supuesto epistemológico fundamental de la creación teórica. La posibilidad de un análisis matemático del continuo garantizaba, en efecto, una descripción intuitiva y pictórica de las trayectorias de los móviles estudiadas por la dinámica, así como una determinación precisa de los efectos producidos en el seno de las relaciones causales. Fueron convicciones y supuestos que (...) tuvieron que ser revisados en el momento en que el cuanto de acción de Planck obligó a desarrollar una nueva... física de los sistemas atómicos. Las consecuencias, no obstante, se dejarían sentir no sólo en el ámbito de la Física sino en todas aquellas regiones de la ciencia natural, como la Biología, que tenían que construirse bajo la cobertura conceptual de la naciente mecánica. El presente trabajo es una reflexión sobre los problemas filosóficos planteados en el encuentro entre la física del átomo y la química de las moléculas. The certainty that natural phenomena and processes could be represented in a physical space ruled by Euclidean geometry was a fundamental epistemological assumption of theoretical creation in classical science. The possibility of a mathematical analysis of the continuum ensured an intuitive, pictorial description of mobile trajectories as studied in dynamics, as well as a precise determination of the effects generated within causal relations. These convictions and assumptions had to be reviewed when the Plank action quantum forced the development of a new physics of atomic systems. Consequences, nevertheless, transcended the scope of Physics and... extended to all regions of natural science, including Biology, which had to be built under the conceptual coverage of the nascent mechanics. The present work is a reflection on the philosophical problems posed by the encounter of physics of atoms and chemistry of molecules. (shrink)