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Connecting the philosophy of chemistry, green chemistry, and moral philosophy

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Abstract

This paper aims to connect philosophy of chemistry, green chemistry, and moral philosophy. We first characterize chemistry by underlining how chemists: (1) co-define chemical bodies, operations, and transformations; (2) always refer to active and context-sensitive bodies to explain the reactions under study; and (3) develop strategies that require and intertwine with a molecular whole, its parts, and the surroundings at the same time within an explanation. We will then point out how green chemists are transforming their current activities in order to act upon the world without jeopardizing life. This part will allow us to highlight that green chemistry follows the three aforementioned characteristics while including the world as a partner, as well as biodegradability and sustainability concerns, into chemical practices. In the third part of this paper, we will show how moral philosophy can help green chemists: (1) identify the consequentialist assumptions that ground their reasoning; and (2) widen the scope of their ethical considerations by integrating the notion of care and that of vulnerability into their arguments. In the fourth part of the paper, we will emphasize how, in return, this investigation could help philosophers querying consequentialism as soon as the consequences of chemical activities over the world are taken into account. Furthermore, we will point out how the philosophy of chemistry provides philosophers with new arguments concerning the key debate about the ‘intrinsic value’ of life, ecosystems and the Earth, in environmental ethics. To conclude, we will highlight how mesology, that is to say the study of ‘milieux’, and the concept of ‘ecumeme’ proposed by the philosopher and geographer Augustin Berque, could become important both for green chemists and moral philosophers in order to investigate our relationships with the Earth.

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Notes

  1. Peirce’s use of italics. The reference in the text refers to the second volume of the Collected Papers of Peirce, and more precisely, inside this volume, to the paragraph number 330.

  2. dτ is a volumic element and \( \psi_{i}^{ * } \) the conjugate of the complex function Ψ i .

  3. http://center.acs.org/applications/greenchem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Linacre College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

    Jean-Pierre Llored

  2. Laboratory SPHERE, University Paris Diderot, Paris, France

    Jean-Pierre Llored

  3. CEA of Saclay, Saclay, France

    Stéphane Sarrade

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  1. Jean-Pierre Llored
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  2. Stéphane Sarrade
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Correspondence to Jean-Pierre Llored.

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Llored, JP., Sarrade, S. Connecting the philosophy of chemistry, green chemistry, and moral philosophy. Found Chem 18, 125–152 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-015-9242-z

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