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SUMMARY:The chemical origins of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie Jr.'s Calculus
  of Chemical Operations - Steve Irish (Department of History and Philosoph
 y of Science)
DTSTART:20121024T160000Z
DTEND:20121024T170000Z
UID:TALK40304@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Vashka dos Remedios
DESCRIPTION:Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie's _Calculus of Chemical Operations
 _ (1866\, 1877) proposed a new way of representing chemical substances and
  operations using \nthe language of symbolic algebra. It claimed independe
 nce of any ontological commitment\, particularly as regards the reality of
  atoms and \nmolecules. It has been of interest to historians and to those
  interested in nineteenth-century debates about the atomic theory. This pa
 per revisits \nBrodie's epistemology\, challenging the received view that 
 Brodie's was primarily a philosophic project. It will propose a new interp
 retation of the Calculus\, based upon an examination of Brodie's previous 
 work as a chemist. It will be argued that a central goal of the Calculus w
 as to justify a new theory of the elements\, and that Brodie hoped to use 
 this to \nground a classification scheme that could embrace all chemical s
 ubstances. Like a biological taxonomy this grand ordering would demonstrat
 e the actual plan of nature. Had he succeeded\, it might have fulfilled a 
 project pursued previously by Charles Gerhardt.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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