Hmm. There is a great deal of philosophy of chemistry. QM was one of the main topics of the last century.
Peter Godfrey-Smith and Elliot Sober
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Yes, but QM is physics and covered under Philosophy of Physics. Philosophy of Chemistry, as far as I can tell, primarily interacts with quantum mechanics through the question, is all of chemistry reducible to quantum mechanics?
Many say yes to that question, which gives me a pessimistic view for the continued existence of a distinct academic field called “chemistry”. It seems more and more like computational and theoretical advancements have allowed both physicists and biologists to squeeze chemistry right out of the middle to a large extent.
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
In the 21st century, chemistry has become the largest scientific discipline, producing over half a million publications a year ranging from direct empirical investigations to substantial theoretical work. However, the specialized interest in the conceptual issues arising in chemistry, hereafter Philosophy of Chemistry , is a relatively recent addition to philosophy of science.
Philosophy of chemistry has two major parts. In the first, conceptual issues arising within chemistry are carefully articulated and analyzed. Such questions which are internal to chemistry include the nature of substance, atomism, the chemical bond, and synthesis. In the second, traditional topics in philosophy of science such as realism, reduction, explanation, confirmation, and modeling are taken up within the context of chemistry.
There’s quite a bit more history of chemistry scholarship out there than philosophy of chemistry scholarship.
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Great to see so many people interested in the philosophy of science! Philosophy of science was not a requirement for my engineering degree, but I did take one introductory course as an elective, and I quite enjoyed it. (The “textbook” for the class was a collection of classic essays in the subject that the prof had put together… things like the problem of induction, issues in the realism vs. anti-realism debate, Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, etc.)
Would that they were!
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