Description
Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann's contributions to chemistry are well known. Less well known, however, is that over a career that spans nearly fifty years, Hoffmann has thought and written extensively about a wide variety of other topics, such as chemistry's relationship to philosophy, literature, and the arts, including the nature of chemical reasoning, the role of symbolism and writing in science, and the relationship between art and craft and science. In Roald Hoffmann on the Philosophy, Art, and Science of Chemistry, Jeffrey Kovac and Michael Weisberg bring together twenty-eight of Hoffmann's most important essays. Gathered here are Hoffmann's most philosophically significant and interesting essays and lectures, many of which are not widely accessible. In essays such as "Why Buy That Theory," "Nearly Circular Reasoning," "How Should Chemists Think," "The Metaphor, Unchained," "Art in Science," and "Molecular Beauty," we find the mature reflections of one of America's leading scientists. Organized under the general headings of Chemical Reasoning and Explanation, Writing and Communicating, Art and Science, Education, and Ethics, these stimulating essays provide invaluable insight into the teaching and practice of science.
Table of Contents
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction, by Michael Weisberg and Jeffrey Kovac.1 Trying to Understand, Making Bonds, by Roald HoffmannPart 1: Chemical Reasoning and Explanation2. Why Buy That Theory?, by Roald Hoffmann.3. What Might Philosophy of Science Look Like If Chemists Built It?, by Roald Hoffmann4. Unstable, by Roald Hoffmann5. Nearly Circular Reasoning, by Roald Hoffmann6. Ockham's Razor and Chemistry, by Roald Hoffmann, Vladimir I. Minkin, and Barry K. Carpenter7. Qualitative Thinking in the Age of Modern Computational Chemistry, or What Lionel Salem Knows, by Roald Hoffmann8. Narrative, by Roald Hoffmann9. Learning from Molecules in Distress, by Roald Hoffmann and Henning Hopf10. Why Think Up New Molecules? by Roald Hoffmann11. Protean, by Roald Hoffmann and Pierre Laszlo12. How Should Chemists Think? by Roald HoffmannPart 2: Writing and Communicating in Chemistry13. Under the Surface of the Chemical Article, by Roald Hoffmann14. Representation in Chemistry, by Roald Hoffmann and Pierre Laszlo15.. The Say of Things, by Roald Hoffmann and Pierre Laszlo16. How Symbolic and Iconic Languages Bridge the Two Worlds of the Chemist: A Case Study from Contemporary Bioorganic Chemistry, by Emily R. Grosholz and Roald Hoffmann17 How Nice to Be an Outsider, by Roald Hoffmann18. The Metaphor, Unchained, by Roald Hoffmann,Part 3: Art and Science19. Art in Science? by Roald Hoffmann20. Science and Crafts by Roald Hoffmann21. Molecular Beauty, by Roald HoffmannPart 4 Chemical Education22. Teach to Search by Roald Hoffmann23. Some Heretical Thoughts on What Our Students Are Telling Us, by Roald Hoffmann and Brian P. Coppola24 Very Specific Teaching Strategies, and Why They Work, by Roald Hoffmann and Saundra Y. McGuirePart 5 Ethics in Science25. Mind the Shade, by Roald Hoffmann26. Science and Ethics: A Marriage of Necessity and Choice for this Millennium," by Roald Hoffmann27. Honesty to the Singular Object, by Roald Hoffmann28. The Material and Spiritual Rationales Are Inseparable, by Roald HoffmannIndex
