Roald Hoffmann on the Philosophy, Art, and Science of Chemistry

Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann's contributions to chemistry are well known. Less well known, however, is that over a career that spans nearly fifty years, Hoffmann has thought and written extensively about a wide variety of other topics, such as chemistry's relationship to philosophy, literature, and the arts, including the nature of chemical reasoning, the role of symbolism and writing in science, and the relationship between art and craft and science. In Roald Hoffmann on the Philosophy, Art, and Science of Chemistry, Jeffrey Kovac and Michael Weisberg bring together twenty-eight of Hoffmann's most important essays. Gathered here are Hoffmann's most philosophically significant and interesting essays and lectures, many of which are not widely accessible. In essays such as "Why Buy That Theory," "Nearly Circular Reasoning," "How Should Chemists Think," "The Metaphor, Unchained," "Art in Science," and "Molecular Beauty," we find the mature reflections of one of America's leading scientists. Organized under the general headings of Chemical Reasoning and Explanation, Writing and Communicating, Art and Science, Education, and Ethics, these stimulating essays provide invaluable insight into the teaching and practice of science.

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction, by Michael Weisberg and Jeffrey Kovac.; 1 Trying to Understand, Making Bonds, by Roald Hoffmann; Part 1: Chemical Reasoning and Explanation; 2. Why Buy That Theory?, by Roald Hoffmann.; 3. What Might Philosophy of Science Look Like If Chemists Built It?, by Roald Hoffmann; 4. Unstable, by Roald Hoffmann; 5. Nearly Circular Reasoning, by Roald Hoffmann; 6. Ockham's Razor and Chemistry, by Roald Hoffmann, Vladimir I. Minkin, and Barry K. Carpenter; 7. Qualitative Thinking in the Age of Modern Computational Chemistry, or What Lionel Salem Knows, by Roald Hoffmann; 8. Narrative, by Roald Hoffmann; 9. Learning from Molecules in Distress, by Roald Hoffmann and Henning Hopf; 10. Why Think Up New Molecules? by Roald Hoffmann; 11. Protean, by Roald Hoffmann and Pierre Laszlo; 12. How Should Chemists Think? by Roald Hoffmann; Part 2: Writing and Communicating in Chemistry; 13. Under the Surface of the Chemical Article, by Roald Hoffmann; 14. Representation in Chemistry, by Roald Hoffmann and Pierre Laszlo; 15.. The Say of Things, by Roald Hoffmann and Pierre Laszlo; 16. How Symbolic and Iconic Languages Bridge the Two Worlds of the Chemist: A Case Study from Contemporary Bioorganic Chemistry, by Emily R. Grosholz and Roald Hoffmann; 17 How Nice to Be an Outsider, by Roald Hoffmann; 18. The Metaphor, Unchained, by Roald Hoffmann,; Part 3: Art and Science; 19. Art in Science? by Roald Hoffmann; 20. Science and Crafts by Roald Hoffmann; 21. Molecular Beauty, by Roald Hoffmann; Part 4 Chemical Education; 22. Teach to Search by Roald Hoffmann; 23. Some Heretical Thoughts on What Our Students Are Telling Us, by Roald Hoffmann and Brian P. Coppola; 24 Very Specific Teaching Strategies, and Why They Work, by Roald Hoffmann and Saundra Y. McGuire; Part 5 Ethics in Science; 25. Mind the Shade, by Roald Hoffmann; 26. Science and Ethics: A Marriage of Necessity and Choice for this Millennium,>" by Roald Hoffmann; 27. Honesty to the Singular Object, by Roald Hoffmann; 28. The Material and Spiritual Rationales Are Inseparable, by Roald Hoffmann; Index

Jeffrey Kovac is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee. Michael Weisberg is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.