Author:

Keywords:

Arts & Humanities, Science & Technology, History & Philosophy Of Science, Multidisciplinary Sciences, History & Philosophy of Science, Science & Technology - Other Topics, philosophy of chemistry, reduction, supervenience, emergence, unification, basis sets, EPR correlations, quantum chemistry, QUANTUM, SUPERVENIENCE, General Science & Technology

Abstract:

Given the enormous variety of possible intertheoretical relations, the proliferation of definitions of reduction, supervenience, emergence, unification, and so on, as well as the fact that empirical studies have provided support for almost any metaphysical option or, alternatively, have shown rather conclusively that empirically the case is inconclusive, I suggest a moratorium on the use of words such as "reduction," "supervenience," and "unification" and to go back to the rough ground and give perspicuous renderings of the practice of chemistry. What is needed are very detailed case studies and further discussions about them, instead of bickering about whether chemistry can be reduced to physics, supervenes on it, can be unified with it, and similar "metaphysical" concerns.