Materials in eighteenth-century science : a historical ontology /
Klein, Ursula, 1952-
Materials in eighteenth-century science : a historical ontology / Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefèvre. - Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2007. - 1 online resource (x, 345 pages) : illustrations - Transformations . - Transformations (M.I.T. Press) .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-325) and indexes.
Materials in eighteenth-century science: contexts and practices -- Commodities and natural objects -- Practices of studying materials in eighteenth-century chemistry -- Why study classification? -- A world of pure chemical substances -- 1787: a new nomenclature -- The Tableau de la nonmenclature chimique -- Classifying according to chemical composition -- Simple substances and paradigmatic syntheses -- Operations with pure chemical substances -- Classification of pure chemical substances before 1787 -- A revolutionary table? -- A different world: plant materials -- Diverse orders of plant materials -- Ultimate principles of plants: plant analysis prior to 1750 -- The epistemic elevation of vegetable commodities -- The failure of Lavoisier's plant chemistry -- Uncertainties -- A novel mode of classifying organic substances and an ontological shift around 1830 -- Conclusion: Multidimensional objects and materiality.
A history of raw materials and chemical substances from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries that scrutinizes the modes of identification and classification used by chemists and learned practitioners of the period, examining the ways in which their practices and understanding of the material objects changed. In the eighteenth century, chemistry was the science of materials. Chemists treated mundane raw materials and chemical substances as multidimensional objects of inquiry that could be investigated in both practical and theoretical contexts--as useful commodities, perceptible objects of nature, and entities with hidden and imperceptible features. In this history of materials, Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefevre link chemical science with chemical technology, challenging our current understandings of objects in the history of science and the distinction between scientific and technological objects. They further show that chemists' experimental production and understanding of materials changed over time, first in the decades around 1700 and then around 1830, when mundane materials became clearly distinguished from true chemical substances. The authors approach their subject by scrutinizing the modes of identification and classification used by chemists and learned practitioners of the period. They find that chemists' classificatory practices especially were strikingly diverse. In scientific investigations, materials were classified either according to chemical composition or according to provenance and perceptible qualities. The authors further argue that chemists did not live in different worlds of materials before and after the Lavoisierian chemical revolution of the late eighteenth century. Their two main studies first explore the long tradition that informed Lavoisier's new nomenclature and method of classifying pure chemical substances and then describe the continuing classification of plant materials according to a pre-Lavoisierian scheme of provenance and perceptible qualities even after the chemical revolution, until a new mode of classification was accepted in the 1830s.
English.
9780262277266 0262277263 0262113066 9780262113069 9781429465632 1429465638 9786612097300 6612097302
4474 MIT Press 9780262277266 MIT Press
GBA700329 bnb
Uk
1700-1799
Geschichte 1700-1830.
Chemistry--History--18th century.
Ontology--History--18th century.
Classification of sciences.
Chimie--Histoire--18e siècle.
Ontologie--Histoire--18e siècle.
Classification des sciences.
SCIENCE--Chemistry--General.
Chemistry
Classification of sciences
Ontology
Chemie
Wissenschaftsentwicklung
Nomenklatur
Chemie.
Classificatie.
Ontologie (filosofie)
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Science PHYSICAL SCIENCES/General PHYSICAL SCIENCES/Materials Science
History
QD15 / .K54 2007eb
540.9/033
Materials in eighteenth-century science : a historical ontology / Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefèvre. - Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2007. - 1 online resource (x, 345 pages) : illustrations - Transformations . - Transformations (M.I.T. Press) .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-325) and indexes.
Materials in eighteenth-century science: contexts and practices -- Commodities and natural objects -- Practices of studying materials in eighteenth-century chemistry -- Why study classification? -- A world of pure chemical substances -- 1787: a new nomenclature -- The Tableau de la nonmenclature chimique -- Classifying according to chemical composition -- Simple substances and paradigmatic syntheses -- Operations with pure chemical substances -- Classification of pure chemical substances before 1787 -- A revolutionary table? -- A different world: plant materials -- Diverse orders of plant materials -- Ultimate principles of plants: plant analysis prior to 1750 -- The epistemic elevation of vegetable commodities -- The failure of Lavoisier's plant chemistry -- Uncertainties -- A novel mode of classifying organic substances and an ontological shift around 1830 -- Conclusion: Multidimensional objects and materiality.
A history of raw materials and chemical substances from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries that scrutinizes the modes of identification and classification used by chemists and learned practitioners of the period, examining the ways in which their practices and understanding of the material objects changed. In the eighteenth century, chemistry was the science of materials. Chemists treated mundane raw materials and chemical substances as multidimensional objects of inquiry that could be investigated in both practical and theoretical contexts--as useful commodities, perceptible objects of nature, and entities with hidden and imperceptible features. In this history of materials, Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefevre link chemical science with chemical technology, challenging our current understandings of objects in the history of science and the distinction between scientific and technological objects. They further show that chemists' experimental production and understanding of materials changed over time, first in the decades around 1700 and then around 1830, when mundane materials became clearly distinguished from true chemical substances. The authors approach their subject by scrutinizing the modes of identification and classification used by chemists and learned practitioners of the period. They find that chemists' classificatory practices especially were strikingly diverse. In scientific investigations, materials were classified either according to chemical composition or according to provenance and perceptible qualities. The authors further argue that chemists did not live in different worlds of materials before and after the Lavoisierian chemical revolution of the late eighteenth century. Their two main studies first explore the long tradition that informed Lavoisier's new nomenclature and method of classifying pure chemical substances and then describe the continuing classification of plant materials according to a pre-Lavoisierian scheme of provenance and perceptible qualities even after the chemical revolution, until a new mode of classification was accepted in the 1830s.
English.
9780262277266 0262277263 0262113066 9780262113069 9781429465632 1429465638 9786612097300 6612097302
4474 MIT Press 9780262277266 MIT Press
GBA700329 bnb
Uk
1700-1799
Geschichte 1700-1830.
Chemistry--History--18th century.
Ontology--History--18th century.
Classification of sciences.
Chimie--Histoire--18e siècle.
Ontologie--Histoire--18e siècle.
Classification des sciences.
SCIENCE--Chemistry--General.
Chemistry
Classification of sciences
Ontology
Chemie
Wissenschaftsentwicklung
Nomenklatur
Chemie.
Classificatie.
Ontologie (filosofie)
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Science PHYSICAL SCIENCES/General PHYSICAL SCIENCES/Materials Science
History
QD15 / .K54 2007eb
540.9/033