Abstract

Theories of chemistry have come to depend inescapably upon the framework provided by atomic physics. This is a dependency which is anchored upon the ability within quantum theory — in particular since the wave mechanics of Schrödinger — to account for chemical bonding by the pairing of electrons, the stability of their resulting structures, and thereby to provide a basis from which to deal with chemical behavior generally. The optimism generated fifty years ago by the initial attempts to apply this framework1 has bolstered the supposition, within the sciences, that chemistry is exclusively an experimental science, it has no theory except what it borrows from atomic physics. It seems to have established, within philosophy, so secure an example of intertheoretic reduction that however often we hear it cited, it remains a case rarely, if ever, examined.