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Aesthetic values in chemistry

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Abstract

This paper investigates the role of aesthetic values in chemical research with regard to the sensual qualities of materials; microscopic structures with a particular focus on symmetry; molecular representations in supramolecular chemistry; chemical experimentation; and mathematical modeling in chemical engineering and physical chemistry. I argue that aesthetic values are important motivation and guidance in all these areas, although their relationship to epistemic and utilitarian values is mixed. They can both help open up entirely new research fields and make blind for new opportunities. Being aware of their existence and understanding their impact, chemists can better take advantage of them without falling victim to their possible misguidance.

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Notes

  1. Early non-mainstream exceptions, which all largely neglect chemistry, include Wechsler 1978; Curtin 1982; Tauber 1996; and particularly McAllister 1996.

  2. For collections of essays, some of which are partly driven by popularization efforts, see Spector and Schummer 2003; Fabbrizzi 2012; Spector 2013; Weibel and Fruk 2013.

  3. This roughly corresponds to the concept of Alexander Baumgarten, who first introduced the term ‘aesthetics’ in his Aesthetica (1750-8) and partly also to ideas in Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).

  4. On the following, see in more detail Schummer 1995 & Schummer 2003a.

  5. For the early history of plastics, see Glenz 1985 and Mossman 1997.

  6. Sects. 3–6 of this paper draw on sect. 3, written by the author, of Schummer et al. (2009).

  7. To be fair, Werner arrived at his theory of coordination polyhedra not only by aesthetic preference but actually performed comprehensive experimental studies on the numbers of substitution isomers, a standard procedure of classical organic chemistry (Werner 1913/1966).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Karlsruhe (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

    Joachim Schummer

  2. Richardstr. 100, 12043, Berlin, Germany

    Joachim Schummer

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  1. Joachim Schummer
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Correspondence to Joachim Schummer.

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Schummer, J. Aesthetic values in chemistry. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 25, 317–325 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-014-0306-0

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