History and Philosophy of Science

Monday 31 March 2008
The Origins of Modern Chemistry:
William Newman vs Ursula Klein
Dr Alan Chalmers
Honorary Associate Professor
Unit for History and Philosophy of Science
University of Sydney
Please note change of location.
The seminar will take place in the McRae Room S418, The Quadrangle (fi rst fl oor behind the
jacaranda tree) at the University of Sydney and will begin promptly at 6:15pm.
Entry is free and everyone is welcome.
For further information contact the Unit for HPS, Carslaw F07, University of Sydney, NSW 2006.
Tel. (02) 9351 4226; email: hps@science.usyd.edu.au; Web: http://www.usyd.edu.au/hps/
Two contemporary scholars, William Newman and Ursula Klein, have extended and transformed our
knowledge of the origins of chemistry. But their accounts diverge signifi cantly. Newman traces a corpuscular
tradition from Aristotle through the medieval alchemists and sees Boyle’s transformation of that tradition
by eliminating scholastic forms as crucial. Klein, by contrast, sees modern chemistry emerging out of craft
traditions of metallurgy and pharmacy and identifi es Geoffroy’s extraction of the essentials of what that
tradition implied in his table of affi nities as the key turning point.The corpuscular philosophy does not fi gure
in Klein’s account. I stress the importance of the distinction between science and philosophy and offer
qualifi ed support for Klein.