This volume follows the successful book, which has helped to introduce
and spread the Philosophy of Chemistry to a wider audience of
philosophers, historians, science educators as well as chemists,
physicists and biologists. The introduction summarizes the way in which
the field has developed in the ten years since the previous volume was
conceived and introduces several new authors who did not contribute to
the first edition. The editors are well placed to assemble this book, as
they are the editor in chief and deputy editors of the leading academic
journal in the field, Foundations of Chemistry. The philosophy of
chemistry remains a somewhat neglected field, unlike the philosophy of
physics and the philosophy of biology. Why there has been little
philosophical attention to the central discipline of chemistry among the
three natural sciences is a theme that is explored by several of the
contributors. This volume will do a great deal to redress this
imbalance. Among the themes covered is the question of reduction of
chemistry to physics, the reduction of biology to chemistry, whether
true chemical laws exist and causality in chemistry. In addition more
general questions of the nature of organic chemistry, biochemistry and
chemical synthesis are examined by specialist in these areas.