Klaus Ruthenberg's talk "No analysis without synthesis"

On Thursday February 22nd Klaus Ruthenberg will give a talk at the Department of Philosophy Colloquium titled "No analysis without synthesis". The talk will be in Jakobi 2, 336 at 16.15.

Klaus Ruthenberg is a professor of chemistry in Coburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has been the dean of natural sciences and the founder of the Centre for Science and Culture. He has a PhD in chemistry (1989) and MA in philosophy of science (1993). Recently he is mostly working in philosophy of chemistry. Professor Ruthenberg has done teaching and research in Argentina, China, Belgium, UK and elsewhere. Few of his recent publications: Chemistry without atoms. František Wald and positivist chemistry. (Königshausen & Neumann, 2018). Foundations of Chemistry, Vol. 12, No. 2 – Special Issue ISPC Coburg 2008 (2010), Klaus Ruthenberg and Jaap van Brakel Stuff – The Nature of Chemical Substances (Königshausen & Neumann, 2008).

Abstract of the talk:
In 1860, Marcelin Berthelot claimed that “chemistry creates its subject”. In 2006, Joachim Schummer wrote in a similar intention: “Chemical synthesis is, to be sure, the most obvious peculiarity of chemistry, albeit the most neglected one because it is foreign to any received idea of philosophy of science.”

In the chemical sciences, it is a received and unquestioned opinion that analytical techniques are necessary for the validation of synthetic efforts. Hence, the picture of analytical chemistry as the subordinate “kitchen maid” of synthetic chemistry has become strong and seemingly inevitable. Very early, however, the significance of the reverse perspective has been mentioned, for example by Etienne-Francois Geoffroy (1704): “One is never sure, in fact, of having decomposed a mixt into its true principles until one can recompose it from the same principles. This reestablishment is not always possible. When it is not possible, it does not necessarily work against the analysis of the mixt, but when it is successful, the analysis is demonstrated.”

In the present contribution, I shall explore the (unusual?) reverse side of the dialectical relationship between analysis and synthesis in some detail. The main question will be: What exactly is the “Analytic-Synthetic Ideal” Mi Gyung Kim (2014) is referring to? My main claim is that no analytical procedure, qualitative or quantitative, can do without synthetic parts. By “synthetic”, I here mean the making of substances as well as the preparation and purification of standards for calibration. One more obvious case is the electrolysis of water: In order to quantify the composition of that substance, oxygen and hydrogen are prepared (synthesized) and their volumes measured and compared. By following the suggestion of Tony Edmonds (Chemical analysis is purification, synthesis, and comparison; 1999), I will try to support my thesis by a close look at various other intriguing examples, among them the “analysis” of noble gases, acids, and selected organics.