Conclusion

Abstract

We will conclude this book by giving some attention to the epistemology [68] of quantumchemistry, the meeting place of physics and chemistry. In my opinion Bachelard [3] accomplished the complete separation of its fundamental elements from the heuristic climate so typical for this kind of science, born out of dialectics confined to applied rationalism and technical materialism. In this area of science experiments designed ‘to see’ have become rare, indeed. The researchers perform their experiments in order to extract from them data to denounce or corroborate a theory, in order to compare quantities between which they presume certain correlations. In other words, the volume of rational structures in their minds predispose them to organize one experiment rather than another, to scrutinize one fact rather than another. In their world the intellectual evolution takes place by closely following the appearance of new experimental results. The introduction of concepts and the formulation of new theories aim at the immediate integration of the newly acquired empirical knowledge, the prediction of new phenomena and the experimental arrangements to unveil these. In the words of Bachelard, scientific knowledge not only harpoons reality, it anchors on its grounds. The far-reaching specialization required to perform such tasks often compels the researcher to one of the functions of theoretician or experimenter. The initial dialectic tends to bifurcate: the most theoretical part of the experimenter’s thinking provides the basis for the theoretician’s meditations, whereas the latter’s achievements gradually modify the experimenter’s rational structures and language.