Explanation in organic chemistry

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Volumn 988, Issue , 2003, Pages 141-153

  Goodwin, William ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Capacities; Explanation; Laws; Mechanism; Organic chemistry; Philosophy of science; Potential energy surface; Theory

Indexed keywords

CONFERENCE PAPER; ENERGY TRANSFER; MOLECULAR DYNAMICS; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PHILOSOPHY; REACTION ANALYSIS; THEORY;

EID: 0038805620     PISSN: 00778923     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2003.tb06093.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (13)

1. I have followed van Fraassen's treatment of explanations as answers to why questions. I have done this only because it offers a convenient way of focusing my project, not because I wish to endorse van Fraassen's Pragmatic Theory of Explanation. See VAN FRAASSEN, B. 1980. The Scientific Image. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
2. When the question is about a class of transformations that has some feature in common, the facts relevant to the question will be facts true of this class of transformations. All of the questions being considered are about reactions of a certain type, thus, in general, answers to those questions would be facts about transformations of a certain type.
3. HAMMOND, G. 1955. A correlation of reaction rates. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 77: 334-338.
4. VOLLHARDT, K. & N. SCHORE. 1995. Organic Chemistry, 2nd ed., p. 187. W. H. Freeman. New York.
5. LOWRY, T. & K. RICHARDSON. 1987. Mechanism and Theory in Organic Chemistry, 3rd ed., p. 374. Harper & Row. New York.
6. Roughly speaking, cis alkenes have the two largest groups on the same side of the double bond, while trans alkenes have the two largest groups on opposite sides of the double bond.
7. VOLLHARDT & SCHORE, Organic Chemistry, p. 395.
8. Hyperconjugation can be given a more rigorous justification in the context of molecular orbital theory, but that would lead us too far afield. It should be noted that the term hyperconjugation is generally applied to cases wherein neighboring orbitals overlap with partially filled orbitals, rather than the completely occupied orbital that are at issue in this case.
9. VOLLHARDT & SCHORE, Organic Chemistry, p. 58.
10. Ibid., p. 97 [Vollhardt's italics].
11. Imagine a case where a moderately bulky base is reacted with a haloalkane that can lead to two different alkenes that are moderately different in energy. If the reaction ended up favoring the more stable alkene, we would explain this result by appealing to the partially formed double bonds in the transition state. On the other hand, if the reaction ended up favoring the less stable alkene, we would explain it in terms of the bulkiness of the base.
12. CARTWRIGHT, N. 1983. How the Laws of Physics Lie. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
13. CARTWRIGHT, N. 1989. Nature's Capacities and their Measurement. Clarendon Press. Oxford.