La Puerta, el Eco, el Huésped y el Palacio,
sobre un muñeco que con torpes manos labró, para enseñarle los arcanos
de las Letras, del Tiempo y del Espacio.
Jorge Luis Borges.
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to discuss which relation can be established between molecular chemistry, on the one hand, and macrochemistry and nanochemistry, on the other hand. In order to do this, we will consider molecular chemistry as an underlying level, and macrochemistry and nanochemistry as emergent levels. Emergence is characterized in very different ways in the philosophical literature; we will not discuss those differences. We will address a distinction between inter-domain emergence and intra-domain emergence. It is our purpose to argue that, from a basal micro-molecular level, macrochemistry and nanochemistry emerge in parallel. The emergence of macrochemistry is an inter-domain emergence, while the emergence of the nanolevel is an intra-domain one. If this is the case, therefore macrochemistry and nanochemistry are not “successive” levels, but parallel ones. This discussion will be held from an ontological point of view, instead of the classical characterization in terms of scale.
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Notes
El Golen, J. L. Borges, Obra Poetica, p. 193.
In English: “The Entry Gate, the Echo, Host, and Mansion, Over a dummy at which, with sluggish hand, He labored hard that it might understand Secrets of Time, Space, Being, and Extension.” According the translation by Norman Di Giovanni” (Borges 1972).
We thank the anonymous reviewer for his/her comment, which allowed us to elaborate on this point.
Van Brakel (2008, p. 145) employs the term ‘pure substance’ in the sense of ‘chemically pure’.
Pressure and temperature conditions in which the states of solid, liquid and gaseous aggregation coexist.
Needham (2008, pp. 102–103) also admits that the triple point is accurate as a macroscopic identification criterion for a pure substance.
An adequate treatment of the philosophical problem of identity exceeds the purpose of this paper.
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Acknowledgements
We want to especially acknowledge Prof. Olimpia Lombardi’s persistent support. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions that helped us improve our work. This paper was possible thanks to the Grant PICT-2018-04519 by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica of Argentina, CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco.
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Zambon, A., Córdoba, M. Nanomaterials and Intertheoretical Relations: Macro and Nanochemistry as Emergent Levels. Found Sci 26, 355–370 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-020-09723-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-020-09723-8