Why Philosophy of Chemistry?

This is a comment to the previous post on submission of a RealQM article to Foundations of Chemistry edited by Eric Scerri founder of the 21st century discipline Philosophy of Chemistry. 

What can be the role of a philosophy of chemistry? Why was it formed only recently? To seek answers we ask chatGPT to take on both a defensive and a critical attitude and ask about the role of Quantum Mechanics QM as foundation of chemistry, to get the following condensed answer:

Defense (QM as a strong foundation)

Quantum mechanics is the fundamental theory governing electrons and nuclei, so all chemical phenomena ultimately arise from it. Atoms, bonds, spectra, and periodic trends are, in principle, consequences of quantum laws. Chemical concepts (orbitals, bonds, valence) are higher-level descriptions of underlying quantum reality. Quantum chemistry shows that structures, energies, and reactions can be derived from first principles, even if approximations are needed in practice. Thus, chemistry is autonomous in use but reducible in principle to QM.

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Critique (QM as a limited foundation)

Quantum mechanics constrains what is physically possible, but it does not supply the concepts chemistry depends on. Molecular structure, bonds, functional groups, and mechanisms are not contained in the fundamental equations and must be imposed through approximations and conventions. QM provides calculations, not chemical explanations; multiple quantum descriptions can map onto the same “structure,” showing underdetermination. Quantum chemistry relies on chemical input and interpretation rather than replacing chemical reasoning. Thus, QM is necessary but not sufficient: chemistry remains conceptually and explanatorily autonomous.

 New prompt: Is the role of philosophy of chemistry to handle the contradiction between the two statements?

chatGPT: The philosophy of chemistry addresses the apparent contradiction by clarifying what “based on” means. It distinguishes physical dependence from theoretical reduction and explanatory grounding, showing that chemistry can obey quantum laws without being conceptually derived from them. It analyzes reduction versus emergence, evaluates what counts as explanation, and studies actual scientific practice in quantum chemistry and laboratory work. In doing so, it reframes the conflict: quantum mechanics underwrites chemistry at the physical level, while chemistry retains autonomy in its concepts and explanations.

Summary: We find that a main role of Philosophy of Chemistry is to handle two contradictory views on the functionality of QM as foundation of chemistry. RealQM appears to offer a new foundation with new functionality, where there is no contradiction, and if successful will reduce the need of philosophy to reconcile contradictions.