Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Philosophy Wire: See a chemical bond. Without seeing anything at all.


Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-03-17]:

Scientists have used an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a weak bond on the way to becoming a molecule.

This fundamental advance, reported Feb. 12 in Science Express and long thought impossible, will have a profound impact on the understanding of how chemical reactions take place and on efforts to design reactions that generate energy, create new products and fertilize crops more efficiently. [1]

But can we see a chemical bond?

Do chemical bonds exist?

Or do we just NAME what we see “chemical bonds”?

We all too often misunderstand what we see with what exists. And this is mainly due to the fact that we have gotten away from Philosophy. We believe we know and yet one of the greatest achievements of great philosophers was to admit that we do NOT know anything. We “see” and yet the only thing we do, the only thing we CAN do, is to think! To imagine!

Imagine everything.

Imagine nothing… What we imagine is indeed what exists!

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

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