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Challenges to the Structural Conception of Chemical Bonding

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Michael Weisberg
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Abstract

The covalent bond, a difficult concept to define precisely, plays a central role in chemical predictions, interventions, and explanations. I investigate the structural conception of the covalent bond, which says that bonding is a directional, submolecular region of electron density, located between individual atomic centers and responsible for holding the atoms together. Several approaches to constructing molecular models are considered in order to determine which features of the structural conception of bonding, if any, are robust across these models. Key components of the structural conception are absent in all but the simplest quantum mechanical models of molecular structure, seriously challenging the conception's viability.

Type
Chemical Bonds
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 75 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2006 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Cristina Bicchieri and Jason Alexander , December 2008 , pp. 932 - 946
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Australia National University, the Philosophy of Science Association, and the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. I am grateful to these audiences for their enthusiasm and very helpful comments. Special thanks to Jerry Berson, Barry Carpenter, Dave Chalmers, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Clark Glymour, Robin Hendry, Roald Hoffmann, Paul Needham, John Norton, Janet Stemwedel, and Deena Skolnick Weisberg for extremely helpful feedback.

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