Of Minds and Molecules New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry

"OF MINDS AND MOLECULES is the beginning of a new literature for a relatively new subdiscipline. Creative philosophers could easily use any one of these essays as the starting point for a very interesting exploration of chemistry. Issues in philosophy of chemistry may not raise the kind of deep conceptual perplexity that the quantum mechanical measurement problem raises, and they may not be as conceptually complex as debates about optimality arguments in evolutionary biology. They are, however, essential to understanding what makes science work and progress. OF MINDS AND MOLECULES is reasonably accessible. Very little philosophical knowledge is presupposed by most of the essays however, a few are fairly technical. Knowing a little chemistry would help the reader be more critical of some of the claims advanced. Overall, I recommend the book to anyone with a serious interest in the philosophy of chemistry or philosophy of science more generally."Bhushan, Nalini is the author of 'Of Minds and Molecules New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry' with ISBN 9780195128345 and ISBN 0195128346.