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Prediction and the Periodic Table: a response to Scerri and Worrall

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Abstract

In a lengthy article E. Scerri and J. Worrall (2001) put forward the case for a novel ‘accommodationist’ version of the events surrounding the development of Mendeleef's Periodic Table 1869–1899. However these authors lay undue stress on the fact that President of the Royal Society of London Spottiswoode made absolutely no mention of Mendeleef's famous predictions in the Davy Medal eulogy in 1883 and undue stress on the fact that Cleve's classic 1879 Scandium paper contained an acknowledgement of Mendeleef's prior prediction of eka-boron.They also fail to analyse in any detail the so-called ‘rare earth problem’ which, in the opinion of this author, causes problems for their account but not for a predictivist account.

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  1. Bradford College, BD7 1AY, UK

    F. Michael Akeroyd

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  1. F. Michael Akeroyd
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Akeroyd, F.M. Prediction and the Periodic Table: a response to Scerri and Worrall. Journal for General Philosophy of Science 34, 337–355 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JGPS.0000005277.60641.ca

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