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Robin Hendry's Research Page

For my biography, research interests and current projects, see my department page.

In preparation

Books

I have completed a draft book entitled The Metaphysics of Chemistry, which has been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press, and will hopefully come out next year. I am currently revising the manuscript. Meanwhile, draft chapters are available below.

Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction & overview

Part 1: Chemical kinds
Chapter 2 What chemical kinds have to do
Chapter 3 The elements of chemistry from Lavoisier to IUPAC
Chapter 4 Elements, compounds and other chemical kinds

Part 2: The discipline of quantum chemistry
Chapter 5 The physicists, the chemists and the development of quantum chemistry
Chapter 6 Explanation and representation in quantum chemistry
Chapter 7 Models and approximations in quantum chemistry

Part 3: Chemistry, physics and physicalism
Chapter 8 Reduction, emergence and physicalism
Chapter 9 Is there downward causation in chemistry?
Chapter 10 Modelling downward causation in chemistry

Articles

  1. ‘Philosophy of chemistry’ in Steven French & Juha Saatsi (eds.) The Continuum Companion to the Philosophy of Science (London: Continuum, 2011), 293-313
  2. (With Michael Weisberg and Paul Needham) ‘Philosophy of chemistry’ in Ed Zalta (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2011)
  3. ‘Science and everyday life: "Water" vs. "H2O"’ Insights 3 (2010)
  4. ‘Entropy and chemical substance’ Philosophy of Science 77 (2010), 921-932
  5. ‘The chemical bond: structure, energy and explanation’ in Mauro Dorato, Miklós Rèdei and Mauricio Suárez (eds.) EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences: Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association (Berlin: Springer, 2010), 117-27
  6. ‘Chemistry: emergence vs. reduction’ in Cynthia and Graham Macdonald (eds.) Emergence in Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 205-21
  7. ‘Ontological reduction and molecular structure’ Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2010), 183-91
  8. ‘The elements and conceptual change’ in Helen Beebee & Nigel Sabbarton-Leary (eds.) The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds (London: Routledge, 2010), 137-158
  9. (With Darrell Rowbottom) ‘Dispositional essentialism and the necessity of laws’ Analysis 69 (2009), 668-677
  10. ‘Two conceptions of the chemical bond’ Philosophy of Science 75 (2008), 909-920
  11. ‘Microstructuralism: problems and prospects’ in Klaus Ruthenberg and Jaap van Brakel (eds.) Stuff: The Nature of Chemical Substances (Würzburg: Königshausen und von Neumann, 2008), 107-120
  12. ‘Chemistry’ in M. Curd and S. Psillos (eds.) Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Science (London: Routledge, 2008), 520-530
  13. (With Stathis Psillos) ‘How to do things with theories: an interactive view of language and models in science’ in J. Brzeziński, A. Klawiter, T.A.F. Kuipers, K. Łastowski, K. Paprzycka, and P. Przybysz (eds.), The Courage of Doing Philosophy (Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi, 2007), 59-115
  14. (With Paul Needham) ‘Le Poidevin on the reduction of chemistry’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 58 (2007), 339-353
  15. ‘Elements, compounds and other chemical kinds’ Philosophy of Science 73 (2006), 864-875
  16. ‘Substantial confusion’ Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 37 (2006), 322-336
  17. ‘Is there downward causation in chemistry?’ in Davis Baird, Lee McIntyre and Eric Scerri (eds.) Philosophy of Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Volume 242 (Dordrecht: Springer, 2006), 173-189
  18. ‘Lavoisier and Mendeleev on the elements’ Foundations of Chemistry 7 (2005), 31-48
  19. ‘The physicists, the chemists and the pragmatics of explanation’ Philosophy of Science 71 (2004), 1048-59
  20. ‘Autonomy, explanation and theoretical values: physicists and chemists on molecular quantum mechanics’ in Joseph Earley (ed.) Chemical Explanation: Characteristics, Development, Autonomy: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 988 (2003), 44-58
  21. ‘Filosofia della chimica’ in N. Vassallo (ed.) Filosofie delle Scienze (Torino: Einaudi, 2003)
  22. ‘Chemistry and the completeness of physics’ in A. Rojszczak, J. Cachro, and G. Kurczewski (eds.) Philosophical Dimensions of Logic and Science (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003), 165-178
  23. ‘Mathematics, representation and molecular structure’ in Ursula Klein (ed.) Tools and Modes of Representation in the Laboratory Sciences, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Volume 222 (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2001), 221-36
  24. ‘Are realism and instrumentalism methodologically indifferent?’ Philosophy of Science 68 (Proceedings) (2001), S25-S37
  25. ‘Molecular models and the question of physicalism’ Hyle 5 (1999), 117-34
  26. ‘Theories and models: the interactive view’ in R. Paton and I. Neilson (eds.) Visual Representations and Interpretations (London: Springer, 1999), 121-30
  27. ‘Models and approximations in quantum chemistry’ in Niall Shanks (ed.) Idealization in Contemporary Physics: Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 63 (Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1998), 123-42
  28. ‘Quantum mechanics, experiment and disunity’ Philosophia Naturalis 35 (1998), 153-9
  29. ‘Empirical adequacy and the semantic conception of theories’ in T. Childers, P. Kolár and V. Svoboda (eds.) Logica ‘96: Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium (Prague: Filosofia, 1997), 136-50
  30. ‘Realism and progress: why scientists should be realists’ in Roger Fellows (ed.) Philosophy and Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 53-72

 

Short Articles

  1. ‘Antoine Lavoisier’ and ‘Linus Pauling’ in Donald M. Borchert (ed.) Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2006)
  2. ‘Mind over matter: Wolfgang Pauli, author of the exclusion principle’ Chemistry in Britain 36 (11), pp.44-6 (November 2000)
  3. Various articles on quantum and classical physics in A. Bullock and S. Trombley (eds.) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, 3rd Edition (London: Fontana Press, 1999)
  4. (With Nancy Cartwright) ‘Duhem’ and ‘Simplicity’ in T. Honderich (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
  5. (With Nancy Cartwright and Timothy Childers) ‘Feyerabend’, ‘Lakatos’ and ‘Methodology’ in T. Honderich (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)

 

Book Reviews

  1. John Cornwell, Explanations: Styles of Explanation in Science, reviewed in Metascience 15 (2006), 287-291
  2. Jaap van Brakel, Philosophy of Chemistry, reviewed in Foundations of Chemistry 7 (2005), 187-197
  3. Joseph LaPorte Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change, reviewed in Philosophical Writings 27 (2004), 71-75
  4. W. Newton-Smith (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Science, reviewed in Ambix 50 (2003)
  5. (With David J. Mossley) J. L. Aronson, R. Harré and E. Cornell Way, Realism Rescued: How Scientific Progress is Possible, reviewed in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (1999), 175-179
  6. Jed Z. Buchwald, The Creation of Scientific Effects, reviewed in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (1997), 109-112 
  7. H. Collins and T. Pinch, The Golem, reviewed in Public Understanding of Science 3 (1994), 323-324
  8. R. Healey, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: an Interactive Interpretation, reviewed in Mind 101 (1992), 169-171