Postgraduates work in progress

Speaker: Franklin Jacoby (University of Edinburgh)

Title: Scientific Change, Pluralism, Perspectivism, and the Chemical Revolution

Abstract: The Chemical Revolution has long been a case study for philsophers and historians. This Revolution in science revolved around a disagreement between phlogiston and antiphlogiston chemists. A recent philosophical exchange between Hasok Chang, Ursula Klein, and Martin Kusch has re-ignited a central question about this period: how should we think about the disagreement between phlogiston and antiphlogiston chemists? Chang defends a normative pluralism view and Kusch argues for a sociological reading. Normative pluralism suggests that we should consider phlogiston and antiphlogiston chemists equally justified in their practices. The sociology reading suggests social factors reasonably motivated a resolution to the chemical debate. In this talk, I revisit the original disagreement between phlogiston and antiphlogiston chemists and argue that both philosophical readings miss important nuances. I will suggest an alternative, perspectival reading, claiming that chemists made conflicting judgements about the same substances. The change from one set of judgements to another was unsurprising and objective because of the extensive overlap in concepts, problems, and explanations endorsed by both phlogiston and antiphlogiston chemists. This perspectival reading gives an account of the Chemical Revolution that avoids pluralism without appealing to social factors and to this extent has a stronger realist flavour.