Journal article
Emil Fischer and the "art of chemical experimentation"
- Abstract:
- What did nineteenth-century chemists know? This essay uses Emil Fischer’s classic study of the sugars in 1880s and 90s Germany to argue that chemists’ knowledge was not primarily vested in the theories of valence, structure, and stereochemistry that have been the subject of so much historical and philosophical analysis of chemistry in this period. Nor can chemistry be reduced to a merely manipulative exercise requiring little or no intellectual input. Examining what chemists themselves termed the “art of chemical experimentation” reveals chemical practice as inseparable from its cognitive component, and it explains how chemists integrated theory with experiment through reason.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 668.9KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1177/0073275316685714
Authors
- Publisher:
- SAGE Publications
- Journal:
- History of Science More from this journal
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 1
- Pages:
- 86-120
- Publication date:
- 2017-01-16
- Acceptance date:
- 2016-10-17
- DOI:
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:1054917
- UUID:
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uuid:bbae6af9-170c-4809-8a48-adcfaadeb018
- Local pid:
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pubs:1054917
- Source identifiers:
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1054917
- Deposit date:
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2019-09-23
Terms of use
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- This is an author version of the article. The final version is available online from the publisher's website
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