This paper first gives its philosophical definition of chemistry, and then defines its dialectics of nature from the combination of chemistry and dialectics of nature. Combined with examples, the relationship between chemistry and dialectics of nature is comprehensively analyzed, and the application of dialectics principle in chemistry is pointed out, which makes the study, research, education and teaching of chemistry more rational, so that people can actively understand, transform and utilize nature and continuously promote the further development of chemical science.
Keywords: philosophy of chemistry, dialectics of chemical nature, learning and application
I. Introduction
A remarkable feature of the development of contemporary science and technology is the overall development trend of science. The comprehensive development of science is not only manifested in the interaction, synthesis and influence between branches of various disciplines, but also in the interaction, combination and influence between different disciplines. This deeper development of integrity is reflected in the mutual silence and integration between different disciplines, which requires us to grasp the internal unity of science as a whole and correctly understand the interaction between different disciplines. The continuous improvement of human understanding of the material world has led to the continuous expansion of the scope of modern science and technology. Its basic departments have been expanded to eight, and at the same time, efforts have been made to strengthen the study of dialectics and methodology and continuously improve the efficiency of scientific research. Chemistry is subordinate to natural science. As one of the eight basic disciplines, natural science is closely related to dialectical materialism through dialectics of nature. Dialectics of nature is the highest theoretical generalization in the history of human chemistry, which plays a great role in guiding and promoting the continuous development of chemical science. Therefore, we must strengthen the study and application of dialectics of nature in chemistry courses.
Chemistry is a basic natural science to study the composition, structure, properties and changing laws of substances. Dialectics of nature is a universal law about the development of nature and natural science, a Marxist view of nature and science, and a methodology for understanding and transforming nature. The relationship between the material category of philosophy and the material form, structure, attribute and change of natural science is the relationship between generality and particularity, individuality and individuality, abstraction and concreteness, absoluteness and relativity, and guidance and guidance. Therefore, there is an inevitable internal relationship between the chemical science of studying matter and the category of philosophical matter. Applying dialectics of nature to chemistry learning and research-based teaching not only plays an important role, but also has far-reaching significance. From this point of view, learning dialectics of nature is not only the need to improve students' chemical quality in an all-round way, but also the indispensable duty of every chemical educator and even chemical worker.
Second, dialectics of nature and chemistry.
1 dialectics of nature
(1) research object. Dialectics of nature is an important part of Marxism, and its research object is the general law of the development of nature and science and technology, the general method of human understanding and transforming nature, and the role of science and technology in social development. Dialectics of nature is a research field that studies the development of science and technology and its relationship with social development under the guidance of Marxist viewpoint theory and method, according to social and historical conditions and combined with the tasks of the times.
(2) Research content. The research content of dialectics of nature can be roughly divided into three parts: dialectics of nature, that is, the view of nature; Dialectics of natural science knowledge, namely epistemology; Dialectics of natural science development, that is, scientific view. Among them, the view of nature focuses on the basic categories and laws of human understanding of nature and the whole picture of the dialectical development of nature. Epistemology mainly discusses the source, development process and test standard of natural science knowledge, and discusses observation, experiment, abstraction, thinking, hypothesis, deduction and induction. In the part of scientific view, it mainly discusses the nature and function, system structure and development law of natural science. These three parts not only have their own emphases, but also are interrelated, and * * * constitutes an organic whole, thus establishing the theoretical framework of dialectics of nature.
2 chemical philosophy
(1) research object. Philosophy of chemistry is a subject with chemistry as the research object and the basic laws of chemical movement and development as the basic research content. Specifically, the four basic issues studied and discussed in the philosophy of chemistry are ontology, epistemology, methodology and the relationship between chemistry and technological revolution and social evolution. Since the philosophy of chemistry is based on the basic laws of chemical movement and chemical development, it must be based on the practice of chemical research, which in turn plays a guiding or enlightening role in later chemical practice. In other words, chemical philosophy is a useful tool, and the function of this tool depends on a strong chemical theoretical basis and empirical practice.
(2) The relationship between chemistry and dialectics of nature. Chemistry is the study of a certain aspect of the world. Obviously, the revealed chemical laws are only used in a specific discipline, but they are also of great significance in the study of dialectics of nature. Dialectics of nature is a general law about the development of nature and science and technology based on summarizing the achievements and special laws of specific scientific, including chemistry, which plays an important guiding role in the study, research, education and teaching of chemistry.
(3) tasks. The task of philosophy of chemistry is to build a bridge between chemistry and philosophy. Philosophy of chemistry is a philosophical summary of chemical achievements by the truth of chemical philosophy, which makes the concept of chemistry rise to philosophical category, the principle of chemistry rise to philosophical principle, the truth of chemistry turns to the truth of chemical philosophy, and the sublation of chemical truth is the expression of philosophy. Conversely, philosophy derived from chemistry and other disciplines reveals the universal laws and properties of all things, and the most general concepts and categories it uses have universal methodological significance to chemistry through the intermediary of chemical philosophy. In the process of realizing the transformation from chemical truth to philosophical truth, chemical philosophy plays its inherent intermediary and bridge role. In short, through the bridge of chemical philosophy, chemistry, as one of the basic disciplines of natural science, once promoted the emergence and development of dialectics of nature, and now it is making its own positive contribution to the new development of dialectics of nature.
3 dialectics of nature in chemistry
3. 1 dialectics of nature accurately reveals the essential characteristics of chemical reactions.
The law of unity of opposites is the essence and core of materialist dialectics. It reveals that the fundamental reason for the movement, change and development of things lies in the contradiction of things. Scientifically explained the road, direction and form of the development of things; The unity of opposites is the essence of all laws and categories of materialist dialectics, which provides the key for understanding other laws and categories of materialist dialectics. At the same time, materialist dialectics is both a world outlook and a methodology, and the law of unity of opposites provides the most fundamental content of this scientific methodology, that is, the contradiction analysis method. This law has been fully verified in many examples in the history of chemistry. The universality and particularity of contradictions are different and interrelated. The difference between universality and particularity of contradiction is relative and can be transformed into each other under certain conditions. For example, markovnikov's law in the history of organic chemistry is a universally applicable law. When asymmetric olefins are added with hydrogen halide, hydrogen will be added to carbon atoms with more hydrogen. However, when there is a strong electron-withdrawing group in the molecule, the situation is just the opposite, which is a special case of Markov rule. Internal cause is the basis of the development and change of things, and external cause is the necessary condition for the existence and development of things. External causes work through internal causes. Organic compounds such as olefins, alkynes, aromatics and aldehydes and ketones all contain unsaturated bonds, but their addition reaction properties are different. Olefins and aromatics can only undergo electrophilic addition, while aldehydes and ketones can undergo nucleophilic addition, which is determined by their internal molecular structures. The internal cause of alkynes determines that electrophilic addition and nucleophilic addition can occur. As for what kind of reaction happens, we need to consider its external conditions, because external factors can only work through internal factors. The products of the addition reaction of propylene and hydrogen bromide are completely different because of the existence of peroxide, which is also caused by external factors through internal factors.
3.2 Dialectics of Nature profoundly reveals the connotation of the development and change of things.
Materialist dialectics holds that the development of things always changes from quantitative change to qualitative change, and qualitative change causes new quantitative change, which is the necessary preparation for qualitative change, and qualitative change is the inevitable result of quantitative change. Therefore, Engels thought that the history of chemistry can be called a science to study the qualitative change caused by the composition change of object quantity. In the chemical movement, the law of this quantitative change to qualitative change is particularly obvious, and the most typical one is the periodic law of elements. The formation and development of the periodic law of elements have gone through three stages: by 1869, 63 chemical elements were discovered by different methods, but there is still a lack of research on the classification and relationship of these elements. This stage is the process of element discovery and accumulation. After entering the19th century, many chemists have successively studied the classification of chemical elements. It was lavoisier who first studied the classification of chemical elements. He classified 33 chemical elements in the Outline of Chemistry VII published in 1 789. From 1829 D 'Urberville's "three-element group" to the birth of Mendeleev's first periodic table of chemical elements in the evening of 1869, it experienced Jean-Claude's spiral diagram of elements, Aldrin's atomic weight and symbol table of elements, Meyer's six-element table and Newlands's eight tones. Mendeleev's second chemical element 1 87 1
After the publication of the periodic table of elements, the periodic law of chemical elements was discovered. In all fairness, the periodic law of chemical elements should be discovered by Meyer and Mendeleev respectively. The periodic law [2 1] shows that the properties of chemical elements change periodically with the increase of atomic weight (later proved to be nuclear charges). The increase in quantity leads to a qualitative leap, which is of universal significance in nature. This proves the law of mutual change of quality in dialectical materialism with scientific facts. Engels fully affirmed the scientific and philosophical significance of the periodic law of chemical elements.
Third, the application of dialectics of nature in chemistry
The field of chemistry, which takes matter as the research object, has always been related to dialectics of nature. On the contrary, dialectics of nature permeates all aspects of chemistry, thus forming a universal and special philosophy of chemistry. If we can use the philosophical world outlook and methodology to solve the problems in chemistry, it will have a far-reaching impact on the study, research and teaching of chemistry.
(1) chemical ontology-matter-the world is matter. Composition of (1) substance. Chemistry is a natural science, as well as an experimental science and a basic science. This is determined by the object matter it studies, which essentially determines the inseparable relationship between chemistry and the whole world and its laws. Because the world is made of matter. Matter exists objectively and is not transferred by human will. Whether you admit it or not, it exists, as Lenin said: "The basic premise of materialism is to recognize the outside world and that matter exists outside our consciousness and does not depend on our consciousness." Only by first acknowledging the existence of matter is the only correct starting point for studying chemical problems. It should be said that our current technology has reached the point where our chemical inspection technology can confirm the elemental composition of any substance as long as it is a substance. That is to say, in the chemist's view, no matter what is tangible, it can't escape the range of 100 elements, and it can't escape the three basic particles of proton, neutron and electron. (2) the structure of matter. As for the structure, at present, what we can make clear is mainly atomic structure, molecular structure and crystal structure. Atomic structure is the basis of all structures. We can imagine that the atomic structure is equivalent to concrete, the molecular structure is equivalent to prefabricated parts, the crystal structure is equivalent to buildings, and the macroscopic substance is equivalent to a big city. Different substances are nothing more than different combinations of elements and atoms. It can be said that four kinds of particles and four kinds of forces constitute the material world.
(2) the essence of matter-the universality and particularity of matter. The relationship between universality and particularity is the relationship between * * *, absoluteness, individuality and relativity. They are both related and different. Universality exists in particularity, and particularity includes universality. The properties and methods of many substances are the unity of universality and particularity.
Structure determines nature, nature is appearance and result, and structure is essence and reason. The law of causality is the cornerstone of building a natural science building. We can't know all the properties of matter, but we can find one or two representatives in each species to study memory and find out the similarity and gradual change, such as methane in alkanes, ethylene in olefins, oils in esters and so on. But this still doesn't touch the essence. The most primitive significance is the study of the periodic law of elements. A thorough understanding of the periodic law and periodic table leads to the core context of chemistry.
In the periodic table of elements, we can find the "family" of elements and understand the causes and general laws of various material properties. Find one or two elements in each "family" as representatives, and study their existing forms, simple substances, oxides, hydrides, hydrates and salts in detail, and study their physical properties, chemical properties, preparation methods, uses and so on for different substances. In this way, as long as a few substances are studied in detail, the related knowledge of other substances in the same family can be deduced in three ways: similarity (or generality), particularity and gradual change law. It can be said that "similarity", "particularity" and "gradual change law" are the most basic weapons for learning chemistry.
(3) the change of matter-the law of unity of opposites. The law of unity of opposites is the law of contradictory movement of things, the basic law of materialist dialectics and the essence and core of dialectics. The specific process of contradiction can be summarized as: the occurrence of contradiction-the development of contradiction-the end (transformation) of contradiction. The process of chemical change is actually the process of material (internal and external) contradictions and struggles. Under certain conditions, when the reaction reaches a certain level, this contradictory struggle tends to be unified, which is the law of unity of opposites in chemistry.
At present, the change of matter is mainly reflected in the transformation and evolution relationship between elemental compounds. Summarizing and mastering these changing laws will play a very important role in our study, research and teaching, and also provide many possible ways for us to learn "synthesis" in the future.
The more important "law of change" is: the transformation between substances of various forms of each element; The mutual evolution of hydrocarbons and their derivatives, such as the "universal" transformation relationship among simple substances, acids, bases, salts and oxides; The "specific" transformation relationship between hydrates of major elements of various ethnic groups, simple elements corresponding to salts, oxides, hydrides and oxides; Conversion relationships among alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, aldehydes, acids and esters.
(4) Material synthesis-dialectical materialism epistemology is the reflection theory of dynamic revolution. It is the ideal of mankind, the dream of every chemist and the ultimate goal of chemical research to prepare and synthesize any substance we need to build and transform the world. From ancient Greek philosopher democritus's ancient atomic view (5th century BC) to British scientist Dalton's modern atomic theory-Italian scientist Evan Garderot's molecular-atomic theory-British scientist Thomson discovered electrons in 1897-modern science has proved that atoms are composed of positively charged nuclei and electrons with negative charges outside the nuclei, which gradually makes people have a more complete and accurate understanding of the material structure and the future. At the same time, the history of chemical development fully proves that the epistemology of chemical philosophy is also a dynamic revolutionary epistemology.
Four. Concluding remarks
Chemistry is the most active subject in natural science and occupies a central position in the development of natural science and science and technology. Marxism–Leninism is the highest generalization of natural science, and dialectics of nature is the bridge between them. Therefore, making full use of philosophical world outlook and methodology to solve chemical problems will not only help us understand the position and role of chemistry and chemistry teaching in human society, but also play a very important guiding role in chemistry learning, research and education.
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