edited bv:
chemical bond/
Boston University Boston. Massachusetts 02215
Editor's Note Whw we discuss "scientific method" in our courser. we often make it appear to be coldly logical and rational. In fact, much Is often intultlve, and, in addition, our formulations of nature's laws are contingem on the very language in which we phrase our questions. In the words of one reviewer of this article, "there are important elements to the formulation of modern scientific theories which are not strictly rational. This is well illustrated by application of the thematic analysis of Professor G. Halton. I believe that the existence of such elements should be pointed out to stlrjents. who are all too ohen presented wnh a view of science as seeking the one true pathto knowledge, an idea which ignores the many variations in path, and even in what constitutes understanding, that have prevailed at various times in the history of science." In what follows, Ted Benfey argues that point, accompanying it with a couple of examples using his own formalism. and concluding, like Bohr, that contradictory world-views are complementary, though the simultaneous acceptance of both is not quite "rational."
The Concepts of Chemistry-Mechanical, Magical or-what?
Organicist,
Otto Theodor Benfey Guilford College, Greensboro, NC 27410 of nature, and through such agraspof phenomena the magusgained T h e chemist has usuallv looked to his neiehhors for his control. models. Our subject, situated between physi; and biology, The Hermetic tradition, as curious as it seems from the modern has a t times been thought of as dealing with mechanical sysviewpoint, represents another thread which was woven into early tems similar to those of Newton's physics, a t other times as modern science. Until recently neglected in the history of science, it being more closely linked to the biological notion of organisms. was an inseparable portion of the intellectual climate of the times, Physics and biology have recently met with problems. Physics with an appeal that was both wide-spread and long-lived. has had to grapple with the puzzling phenomena of relativity This tradition arose in part from the feeling that earlier views and quanta and has had to give up the simplicity of Newton's were largely based on Greek, hence pagan, notions and that world. Even before then, chance had already entered the world the Judaeo-Christian view of matter was different. The sacof physics, as well as the recognition that nature preferred raments implied the possibility of transforming mnrt
